Crystal Dreams of Eternity
by Jen-chan-shaw
Summary: The Door of Souls was meant not to be opened by hands, fal'cie, but by wills, human. If opening that door brings Fang and Vanille back, then Maker help anyone in Lightning's way. Lightning X Fang. A take on what FFXIII-2 might be like.
1. Ch 1  III 1  Prologue End of an Age

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 1: (III.1) Prologue - End of an Age  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan

January 19 - January 20, 2011

DISCLAIMER: This fanfic was written with knowledge of FFXIII derived from the game, as well as fan-translations of episodes zero, one and the Fabula Nova Crystallis Mythology, and that totally delicious teaser trailer of FFXIII-2 that was recently released.

The characters from the FFXIII universe that appear in this fanfic do not belong to the author and are being used without permission from their owners, who include Square Enix.

SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers for the game and light novels exist for this fanfic.

STORY SYNOPSIS: The Door of Souls was meant not to be opened by hands fal cie, but by wills, human. And if opening that door is the only way that Lightning Ferron gets her family back, then Maker help anyone in her way. A post-game fanfic. Eventually, Lightning x Fang.

Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

In a world that was not quite here and not quite there, three siblings met. 'Sibling' is perhaps not the best term to describe their relationship, for these three had neither mother nor father, but they were created by a common maker, and so perhaps 'sibling' is the most appropriate term for human comprehension.

They did not meet often. Indeed, they had only met once before. Their maker had tasked two of them, brothers, with momentous charges while shunning the third, the sister. The two brothers each knew the purpose of his existence, and so laboured tirelessly towards his Focus, but to no avail. It was not until the brothers came together, seeking counsel with one another, did they come to realize how they could complete their Focus.

For eons they had tasked, expanding the world, protecting their sleeping maker, and searching, forever searching for that which eluded them: the Door of Souls. Eventually, the brothers realized that they could only accomplish their goal together.

And so, they put their plan into motion over the course of many, many human generations, while the sister could only watch, contemplate and lament. She lamented for humanity, for her brothers were foolish, as she herself once had been.

For eons, she watched, and wept.

But today was different.

Today, the sister had not only watched, but interfered. Had interfered, and destroyed the work of her brothers.

Lindzei was coming to an end. He was not dying; death was not a phenomenon meant for by such beings as the siblings, but none the less, soon, he, and everything that sprung from him, would be no more.

With his brother's help, Lindzei had orchestrated his own end over the course of millennia. He had come to the conclusion that the only way for him to fulfill his Focus, was to end himself, and all that he supported - his world: Cocoon. This, he had reasoned, would allow him to finally complete the task he was given: to open the Door of Souls.

And yet, the Door of Souls had not opened, for Etro had intervened, as she had done once before, had waved her hand and lent her support to the saving of those who should have ended with him.

And so, Lindzei ended. For naught. His last look, before crystal rest claimed him, was directly at Etro.

_I charge you, dear sister. I know not the reason for your interference, but I trust that wisdom rather than foolishness guided your actions, for you have been through that which we sought to open. And so I charge you to complete my focus in my stead. Open the Door of Souls, and awaken our master, Buniberzei._

Etro did not answer her brother, but bowed her head in solemn respect.

Lindzei closed his eyes, and knew no more.

Pulse also bowed his head. He did not grieve; grief, like death, and all other emotion, was not a phenomenon meant for him. But Lindzei had been his brother, and something had irrevocably changed with his end.

An eternity passed in a moment, and then Pulse left the meeting place of his siblings.

Etro looked at him, even as he faded away from her.

_Would you too, follow Lindzei's path, Brother?_

Pulse didn't answer.

There was too much work to do.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

Hi! Thanks for reading! Please consider visiting my profile page for an overview of how this fanfic is expected to work; it's probably not as straight forward as it could be! ^_^

The next chapter, Chapter 2, is also part II.1. It is set during the game.


	2. Ch 2 III 2 Sought and Found

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 2: (III.2) Sought and Found  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By Jen-chan

January 21 - January 26, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Post-game. Lightning searches for Fang & Vanille and finds them.

* * *

Closure. That was all Lightning Farron was really looking for, or so she told herself. She wasn't naive or stupid enough to actually have hope (or at least, to admit to herself that she had hope) that she would find Fang and Vanille alive and smiling, just waiting to be rescued.

Somewhere, deep in her heart, she knew that they had to have gone on already, because she could *feel* them - in the air, in her mind... For the last year, ever since Cocoon had fallen out of the sky, she was certain that a warm, comforting presence had been following her around, watching over her, protecting her. Like a guardian angel.

And she had known, somehow, that that had been Fang, and maybe Vanille too, looking out for her. Wanting her to move on.

There were even days, her worst days, when her heart ached so much it threatened to fall out of her chest, and all she wanted to do was to smash everything around her to bits in frustration. Everyone would have to give her a wide berth on those days, even Serah, though her younger sister would try her best. Always, on those days, she'd imagined that she could hear Fang's voice chiding her, _'get a grip on yourself, Sunshine! Look forward, not behind!'_

The living didn't do that.

So Lightning accepted, she really did, that Fang was gone.

She really did.

Really.

But in the end, she just couldn't stop that doubt, that maddening, all encompassing, debilitating *doubt*, from creeping across her thoughts and heart, rousing her in the middle of the night, and shattering her ability to concentrate on anything when she was awake.

_~... What would you do, if they were out there and just needed a little bit of help to get back? What would you do, if *she* were out there, just waiting for you to get her...?~_

She couldn't stop waking up in the morning, grasping at dreams in which they'd been reunited though she could not remember any details...

She couldn't stop thinking about how they'd dared to, and triumphantly defied their fates once before already...

_~We never *did* find Fang and Vanille's crystals... or their bodies...~_

... and so, Lightning realized, she could never really move on, until she got that closure.

One way or another, one form or another, she would find Fang and Vanille.

And then she'd be able to move on.

So that was why Lightning was currently scaling the sides of the crystal pillar which held up Cocoon. The going had been surprisingly tough. The structure was very smooth, and slippery, with not very many suitable edges for gripping. The structure was hard too - it took a long time to hammer in the safety spikes through which she'd feed her rope through. She was going at a snail's pace. It was already her second day on the pillar; she was roughly three quarters of the way up. She'd spent one harrowing night huddled against one crystal outcrop already, strapped in with rope, one shoddy carabineer away from a long, long plunge.

Her night had not been restful, understandably, given the circumstances, but also because she had dreamed of Fang all night. Fang, in all her magnificent, blue sari-clad glory, yelling at her to _'stop being a dill! Stop looking for us! Go back home!'_

It was the clearest dream Lightning had ever had of Fang, and though the other woman had wanted her to stop looking, it had only served to encourage Lightning all the more.

As Lightning carefully reached for her next handhold, she tried to keep her attention on the present, rather than cursing her own stubbornness.

She could have asked Sazh to fly her up the pillar, though she had ultimately decided against it. For one, with the irregular branching that occurred in the crystal pillar, no aircraft could really get that close to the trunk to really examine it closely. And secondly, she hadn't wanted to put him in a difficult spot for a fool's errand. It was difficult these days to get clearance for aircraft. The military had spent much of their energy on the evacuation of 15 million Cocoonians and supplies, and without the Fal'Cie's powers to recharge them, it was decided that flights should be suspended save for the most necessary of missions, at least until an alternative fuel source could be perfected.

And so Lightning climbed. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for, or what she was doing, really, but something in her gut had told her that this pillar would be her best bet for now. It was funny - the closer she'd gotten to the crystal pillar, the higher up she'd climbed, the clearer her dreams had gotten. It was definitely encouraging.

_~Almost there,~ _she thought, grunting with effort as she reached up and pulled. _~Just a little more, and...!~_

She slipped.

_~Shi-!~_

Suddenly, Lightning was in free fall.

And in that free fall, a thousand thoughts warred with for her attention - what an idiot she really had been - how she should have said good-bye to Serah before she'd come out - what would Fang think of her carelessness - would she see Fang on the other side-

And then she felt a snap as her safety rope caught her. "Agh!" Lightning grunted as her harness cinched around her pelvis painfully, jolting her, spinning her, and then slamming the side of her body against the crystal pillar roughly, bruising her shoulder.

For a moment, she swung there, only the rope holding her, before she managed to find footholds and plastered herself against the side of the crystal pillar again.

She gasped loudly for air, her blood roaring in her ears and her heartbeat thundering out of her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to count to ten - forced herself to slow her breathing, forced herself to calm the hell down.

_~It's okay,~_ she told herself. _~It's okay. You're fine. You're fine! Just... open your eyes. Open your eyes and don't look down.~_

It took her a while. But when she managed to open her eyes again, she could see that she had only fallen about 15 feet or so. She had been lucky that she'd put in that safety spike where she did; the next one was significantly lower down.

Lightning wondered what Fang would have said.

_~Probably something about lady luck.~ _The thought of the Pulsian woman helped to put some of the strength back in Lightning's grip, and for that, the soldier was thankful.

Fang - looking out for her, even now.

Actually, Lightning realized, as she closed her eyes again to build up the mental strength to climb again, she thought she could hear the Pulsian woman's voice now.

_'Idiot!'_ Fang's voice seemed to say. _'Stop DOING this! Or at least, if you insist on doing this, stop thinking about me and pay attention to what you're doing!'_

Lightning couldn't help but smile grimly to herself. _~Stop now? Just cause you want me to? Right. That's going to happen.~_

Fang threw up her hands. _'... you are impossible.'_

Lightning knew it was only her own imagination, but somehow, even though she knew that Fang would have been exasperated with her, she also felt that she could hear fondness in the warrior's voice.

_'Alright then, if you're going to do this, then stay at her for a couple more hours. You'll reach a decent sized ledge soon. Take a closer look at the crystal wall on that ledge. You'll see a crack. That's where you want to go.'_

Lightning blinked. Now that... was a weird thought.

Talking to an imaginary Fang was one thing... but having imaginary Fang talk back to her and give her specific advice that she herself had no original knowledge about?

_~That's it. I've finally lost it.~_

Still, realizing that now was not the place to start questioning her sanity, Lightning grit her teeth, reached up, and continued to climb again.

It took a couple more hours... but eventually, eventually... she made it.

"Aaargh!" With one final grunt of effort, Lightning managed to haul herself onto a ledge. Gasping for air, her entire body trembling from the exertion, Lightning finally allowed herself to rest for a few minutes. Pulling her backpack out, she found the potion she was looking for and quickly took a swig.

She felt revitalized immediately.

It wasn't until after she'd done all this did she finally allow herself to look around. It was a good sized ledge, and it was getting late in the day. She could probably stay here for the night, if need be.

_~Huh. Well whaddaya know. This WAS here.~_

But there was no way in hell she had seen this before. How had she known it was here...?

A strange feeling twanged in Lightning's heart, but she quickly squashed it down, as it felt far too much like hope. She moved quickly to the crystal wall to examine it, but was held back by her rope. Against her better judgment, she undid her rope and harness, so that she could go examine the wall.

And sure enough, Lightning realized, for whatever reason, the crystal around this area had somehow been compromised. There were fracture lines snaking all around it, as though a good assault would shatter it.

The strange feeling twanged in Lightning's heart again, and this time, she didn't squash it down. Instead, she pulled out her gunblade, and launched a series of strikes against the crystal.

She was rewarded with flying crystal shards bursting outwards, peppering her. Lightning winced as a few of them cut into her skin, drawing blood, but thankfully, not too deeply. Shaking her head, she quickly brushed as much of the crystal shards off of her person as she could before surveying the damage: there was a large crack in the wall of the crystal pillar now - a little bit smaller than her, but definitely large enough to squeeze through.

_~W-what the hell?~_ That strange feeling blossomed into full blown hope in Lightning's chest as she stared at the crack. Her body broke out in goose bumps.

A familiar voice seemed to drift by in the wind again.

_'See you soon, Sunshine.'_

"Wait!" Lightning cried, whirling around, trying to catch a glimpse of a ghost. "Fang? Is that you? Was that you all along?"

There was no answer.

Lightning balled her hands into fists. _~Fine! If that's the way you want to play it, then that's the way we'll play it.~ _Unable to stop the hope born impatience in her heart, Lightning quickly squeezed through the crack in the crystal wall...

... and promptly found no ground under her feet.

With a sharp cry of surprise, Lightning tumbled down down down down down.

She hit her head on something hard, and then knew no more.

* * *

_'... wake up...'_

_'... wake up!'_

"... WAKE UP!"

Lightning groaned. "...Fa... ng...?" She whispered, voice hoarsely. She opened her eyes.

The most beautiful sight in all the world greeted her.

Fang's bottomless jade eyes, crinkled with horrified worry, gazed down at her. She was just as Lightning had remembered her - stunning, proud, strong, her smooth bronzed skin framed with dark, tousled hair. Her mouth, lined with concern, was currently opening and closing like she was trying to say something, but Lightning couldn't quite hear her.

Lightning swallowed. "Fang...!" She reached out for the other woman.

Whatever words that had been trying to make their way from Fang's lips to Lightning's ears ceased, as Fang stopped talking, and simply stared at Lighting in wonder. And then, those beautiful jade eyes softened, and Fang whispered back, "... Light."

Lightning locked her teeth together, fighting back the overwhelming flood of emotion that suddenly threatened to swallow her. Pulling herself upwards, she threw her arms tightly around Fang's neck in a crushing embrace. Fang's body was taught, toned, and muscled, just as Lightning had remembered it to be. She smelt of wild flowers and sunlight, just like Lightning had remembered her to.

"Fang!" Lightning breathed, squeezing her eyes closed. "You're real! You're alive!"

For a moment, the other woman didn't respond. And then, slowly, Lightning felt Fang's arms around her waist, as she returned the pink haired soldier's hug.

"No, Light," Fang whispered, voice quavering with remorse, and barely audible. "I'm not. You're in the crystal. You hit your head, and you passed out. You're hurt pretty badly. You have to wake up, and you have to call for help. This... this isn't real. You're dreaming."

Lightning snapped her eyes opened, pulling herself out of the embrace to stare at Fang, flabbergasted. "W-what are you talking about?" She demanded.

She had only seen Fang's eyes look this unbearably, heartrendingly sad once before - in orphan's cradle, as she and Vanille had dropped away from everyone else.

"Light," Fang said quietly, reaching out and cupping Lightning's cheek tenderly in one hand, "believe me when I say I want nothing more than to keep you here, but it's the truth. You need to get help *now*. Every second you stay here, the greater the risk that you just don't wake up again. And I... I couldn't bear the thought of that. Please, you have to wake up. For me."

With grave reluctance, Fang lifted her other hand, her thumb pressed against her middle digit.

Lightning's eyes widened. "No, Fang, wait-!"

Fang snapped her fingers.

Lightning woke up.

* * *

Everything was dark. For a moment, Lightning wasn't sure if that was because she hadn't opened her eyes yet, or if she'd gone blind, but then, gradually, her vision adjusted and she realized that it wasn't entirely dark - there was a very, very faint light, shining from somewhere down from above.

Lightning groaned. Everything hurt. She realized that she was lying, face down, on something really hard. She tried to twitch her hands and feet. Miraculously, three of four limbs responded, but her right arm shot stabbing needles of hurt up through her body. She managed to muffle a cry.

_~L-let's not try to do that again for a little bit.~_

Struggling, she tried to lift herself off the ground. She got a few inches off, and then felt a blinding pain in her middle. Only sheer stubbornness kept her from falling back down. With an iron will born of years of discipline, she forced herself up into a sitting position, grateful that she had something to lean her back against.

Swallowing, she tried to assess her situation. She was... somewhere inside the pillar. She had broken at least several ribs, as well as her arm. She probably had a concussion too, given how dizzy she felt. The dim light was coming from the crack in the crystal she'd made to the outside, which was currently... oh... some 30 feet or so above her. She hadn't fallen straight down the full 30 feet. Evidently, she had bounced and tumbled down the inside of the crystal.

With the little bit of light, she was able to locate her backpack, which had luckily fallen with her, just a few feet away. Crawling over to it, her heart sank as she realized the container of potion she had was broken, and mostly spilled. She was able to recover a little bit of the spilt liquid which had been absorbed by the canvas of her backpack, but not much - it helped a little to ease the pain in her arm and ribs.

Lightning's heart sank further as she continued to look through her backpack when she realized that her communicator had also been damaged - she wouldn't be able to radio in or out... but at least the emergency GPS locator didn't seem damaged. She pressed the button, and a green light began to blink slowly.

Lightning breathed a sigh of relief - at least, it appeared, Fang's lady luck hadn't *fully* abandoned her.

"Thanks a lot, Fang." She mumbled under her breath. "You could have warned me about the first step."

She didn't get a response.

Lightning contemplated what to do next. Assuming that the GPS locator worked, then help would be on the way, but it was likely a few hours, or maybe even a day out, depending on whether or not this situation ranked important enough to warrant the use of aircraft.

In the meanwhile...

_~Just where the hell am I?~_

After struggling to her feet, Lightning rummaged through her backpack one more time and managed to find some emergency glow sticks. Taking one of the thick tubes out of the package, she cracked and shook it to mix the chemicals. A pale blue glow began to emanate from the tube. Lifting it up as high as she could, while still needing to favor her ribs, Lightning looked around.

She was in a crystal cavern of some sort; the light from her glow stick bounced all over the various reflective surfaces, providing more than sufficient light for her to see. Everything was blue-tinged because of the glow stick, bathing her surroundings in a calm, but melancholy air. The cavern was pretty big, but she judged that its width was nowhere near the full diameter of the massive crystal pillar; maybe one tenth.

There were various crystal stalactites and stagnamites coming down from the roof and up from the floor. Some of the smaller ones just below the crack in the wall Lightning had made were broken and stained with blood - evidence of where she had fallen.

The most visually striking structure in the cavern though, was a structure which was directly in the middle. It grew out of the floor, and ballooned into roughly an egg shape, almost in miniature imitation of how the crystal pillar itself shot up out of Pulse and ballooned to envelope Cocoon.

Lightning's heart leapt into her throat as she stared at the structure.

She found them.

All other thoughts fled from Lightning's mind, as she slowly walked towards the structure, a trickle of blood from her injuries marking her steps as she went around to see it from the other side.

And there they were.

Suspended in a crystal cradle, every strand of hair perfectly etched, bodies curled in opposite and flipped fetal positions, holding each other's hand.

Fang and Vanille.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES & OMAKE:**

Thanks a bunch for reading, and especially to those of you who've reviewed! It really helps to keep Muse-chan going!

The next chapter (4), also known as I.1, will cut away from Lightning X Fang for a bit, as it goes back to pre-game times to shed some light on Fang and Vanille's relationship. Since FxV seem rather canon to me in the game, I feel this big need to examine them if only so that I can explain why FxL is possible in this fic. As such, it will be Fang X Vanille without being Fanille if that makes any sense...

Many thanks to my lovely guubear for putting up with me, and for being such a patient sound board.

Please find omake following, because this fic takes itself faaaaar too seriously!

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

**OMAKE1: They don't make crystal pillars like they used to**

LIGHTNING: [examines the crystal wall and sees the fracture lines] Hmm... a good whack ought to do it...

[She ARMY-OF-ONEs it. The entire pillar snaps, clean through. COCOON groans and smashes against PULSE, destroying the fledgling human civilization around it].

LIGHTNING: ... oops.

* * *

**OMAKE2: If I had to be a zombie or a ghost, I'd be a ghost**

FANG [Floating in a non-corporeal sense beside LIGHTNING as LIGHTNING climbs the pillar]: You know, Sunshine, you really shouldn't go crystal mountain climbing in such a short skirt, you know, bike shorts not withstanding.

[LIGHTNING can't hear Fang, so just keeps on climbing.]

FANG: ... oh, what she doesn't know won't hurt her. [Floats under LIGHTNING to peek up her skirt] Huh. Never would've figured her for polka dots.


	3. Ch 3 II 1 Dancing

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 3: (II.1) Dancing  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
January 29 - February 16, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: During game; a collection of scenes describing Fang and Lightning's instant connection.

NOTE: All external dialogue in the first scene is directly from the FF-XIII game, and was not written by myself. Same deal with the external dialogue in the third scene!

* * *

It was not difficult for Fang to pin-point the exact moment she fell for Lightning Farron. It had been the very first moment she'd laid eyes on the soldier, at Palumpolum Public Square, surrounded by PSICOM and impossible odds.

She had taken one look down at the battle hardened soldier, saw the determined set of her brilliant blue eyes, saw the command with which she wielded her entire body as a weapon, and felt an electric thrill lanced down her back.

She'd been with lovers before, but not one of them had inspired such intense attraction before; and fully clothed from at least forty feet away, no less! Putting her hands on her hips, Fang gave a low whistle of appreciation; Snow Villiers, the overgrown delinquent with a heart of gold beside her, glanced at her amusedly.

"That's some crowd," Fang said, purposefully choosing words that would be vague enough to hide the true source of her attention. "Gonna need a plan." She was overwhelmed by the sudden need to make a very flashy and cool entrance.

Snow was, evidently, her man. He grinned, and gave her a thumbs up. "Since when do heroes need plans?" With that, he tossed his Eidolon crystal up in the air and smashed it with his fists.

The Shiva sisters instantly arrived on the scene in their snowflake whirlwind trademark of sexy glory, capturing the attention of most of the bewildered soldiers in the square. It was a testament to the pink haired soldier's appeal that Fang was probably the only person in the square who's eyes were not captured by Shiva.

"Fang." Snow tossed a gun at Fang, who caught it deftly, though she looked at it with a bit of a sour expression on her face. Firearms really weren't her thing, but... it would be flashy. With no further warning, Snow leapt down from the building platform they were on directly aback the Shiva sisters, even as they wrapped their endless limbs together and transformed into simultaneously the hottest and coolest motorcycle known to man.

Fang wasted no time leaping down onto the passenger seat.

And so they charged, reckless idiots, but *damn* *fine* reckless idiots, if Fang had to say so herself, down the ice ramp that Shiva had made for them, guns blazing and enemies falling under Fang's spray of bullets.

They burst off the ice ramp in dramatic fashion - it might as well have been choreographed!- directly over Lightning Farron's head, and spun to a stop not several feet away from her.

Snow grinned cockily at the solider. "Yeah! Lightning!" He greeted.

Fang, however, found herself devoid of words. It was her first time seeing the lithe soldier up close, and even with a school-marm expression stern enough to scare the pants off of a pack of doddlers... she was exquisite.

The grace in her stature, the infinite cerulean of her eyes, and a pair of endless, *endless* legs even the twin sisters could approve of... everything about her screamed to be worshiped as the patron saint of gorgeousness, and for a moment, Fang idly wondered if she'd maybe been a bit too reckless with Snow several stories up, and had actually died and gone to heaven.

Wordlessly, she hopped off the motorcycle, along with Snow, trying to come up with something smooth to say.

Her brain abandoned her.

For Lightning's part, the soldier only stared coldly at Snow and Fang, her eyes darting with precision between Snow's baby blues, and Fang's own jade orbs. Fang could feel electricity pass through her body again as their gazes met briefly. She noticed the other woman's eyes narrow; she must have felt something too. Fang grinned.

Lightning frowned. Then, with no further warning, she harrumphed, and tossed the silver-haired kid at her side at Snow.

Snow caught the boy's shoulders. "Whoa!"

"Take care of him," Lightning demanded, even as she quickly turned away, dismissing Fang altogether as she quickly cocked her weapon into the form of a firearm.

Anyone else would probably have termed the action rude, but Fang thought it was sassy.

"Lightning, listen to me!" Snow shouted.

The soldier would have none of that. "Get moving," she snapped.

"No, you don't understand!" Snow insisted. "Serah's all right! She'll turn back!"

But his attempt didn't work, and Lightning simply took off, guns blazing. "Take care of Hope." She commanded once more.

"Wait!" Snow shouted again, to no avail.

Fang could not help but cross her arms at this display, a smirk on her face. Head strong as well! She liked that. Walking up to Snow, she put a hand on his shoulder. "And then there were three." She laughed, and briskly jogged after the soldier.

But Snow didn't follow her. Fang looked back, and noticed that the soldiers were starting to get up; damn those bullet proof vests! This was why one should never use a gun to do a melee weapon's job! But Snow was already all over it, putting Hope on the Shiva sisters.

Fang smirked to herself. The lug and the kid would be fine; she had more interesting things to attend to. She picked up her pace, following the pink-haired soldier.

Lightning must have noticed that she was being tailed by Fang, but chose not to do anything about it; Fang couldn't help but wonder why, even as she admired the soldier's backside. And then, the answer came into view for Fang too: directly in front of them was a squad of roughly two dozen PSICOM soldiers of various ranks and positions, three crusader tilters, and two Falco velocycles.

Fang cursed softly under her breath and picked up her pace so that she could run along side the soldier.

Lightning turned briefly to look at the one who had caught up to her, and their eyes met fully again.

And Fang... couldn't explain what happened next.

It was like understanding just passed between them. In that split moment, Lightning seemed to have communicated an entire strategy to Fang without words. _'I'll take the ones on the left, you take the ones in the middle. Get the ones on the right to open fire on their own side.'_

Wordlessly Fang nodded, and then they leapt straight into battle.

It was breathtaking.

Words could not describe the virtual ballet of destruction they rained on their enemies. Their coordination was spot on. Fang never had to look for the other woman even once; somehow, she seemed to know exactly where the other warrior was at all times, as Lightning knew her location and intent.

They danced, bodies twisting to avoid a hail of bullets from the velocycles, flipping around and over each other to frustrate the angry swipe of a tilter. At one point, Fang somehow knew to reach behind her and grabbed one of Lightning's outstretched hands, tossing her high up in the air so that the soldier could fire off a quick succession of bullets from her gunblade to knock down a line of soldiers, even as Fang then rushed forward to relieve the tilter in front of her of its front arms.

It was beautiful. It was sublime.

It could have brought Fang to tears.

Never, in all her years of fighting in squads, or hunting in teams, had she partook in such a breathtaking exercise of precision and wordless understanding. She understood now, why some of the best fighters in Oerba experienced marital problems; wives just could not understand this bond between warriors. While their elders had attempted to explain the phenomenon to the younger generations, the discussions had always tended to dissolve into the cliche 'love on the battlefield'. This never failed to prompt silly giggles from the children and never was quite what the older men were trying to articulate, but now... now Fang understood.

They took out the enemy in absolutely no time. Fang idly realized she hadn't even broken a sweat, though she did breathe a bit more deeply from the exhilaration of it all. If there was some sort of cosmic fight rating system in the sky somewhere, she wouldn't hesitate to rank this fight six stars out of five! Seven!

And then Fang felt a piercing gaze upon her. She turned and regarded her fellow warrior. Lightning Farron was breathing deeply also - Fang couldn't help but let her eyes be drawn to the way the other woman's lithe bosom heaved.

Lightning noticed, but did nothing. Instead, she cracked a small, satisfied smile, one Fang returned.

It would take Fang a while to realize how rare that smile was, and how lucky she had been to have been graced by it. She wouldn't see it again for a while.

If Fang could have bottled this moment up into a gem, she would have, to re-live over and over for all eternity.

But alas, it was not the time for that yet. The sound of an army of boots interrupted Fang's reverie, and she frowned. When she did so, Lightning lost her own smile, and they both glanced in the direction the noise came from, before flicking their eyes to regard each other once more.

Wordless understanding passed through them once again, and they quickly made away from the scene through the back alleys of Palumpolum.

Fang wasn't sure how long they ran before the sound of pursuit faded away, but if felt like forever. Eventually, they found themselves in a less heavily guarded area.

She could feel Lightning's eyes on her; they still hadn't exchanged any words yet. Fang flashed Lightning a 'don't worry' smile, but the soldier did not return it this time. Instead, suspicion was clearly evident in the pink haired woman's eyes. Now that they were no longer in combat, the adrenaline had ebbed somewhat, and the soldier was obviously realizing that she had no idea who Fang was. That bothered the hunter somewhat, not that she could blame the other woman.

Deciding that the best way to soothe that suspicion was probably to distract her, Fang took out the communicator thingy she'd been given by the cavalry. She quickly dialed up Snow. It took a while, but the man finally answered.

"Hey, it's me, what's up?"

Fang snorted. "You know damn well what's up! Why haven't you called in?" She realized the root cause of her frustration was not the man's (not-actual) tardiness, but rather her companion's distrust. Still, it didn't hurt to take that frustration out on the lug.

"Sorry, slipped my mind."

"Right." Fang resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Well, what's your status?"

"Great! Great. Hope's great too. Are you okay?"

Fang sighed. "I'm great, you're great, everyone's great." She looked at Lightning, and handed the communicator to her, realizing she'd have to let the soldier take part in this conversation to regain the trust she so implicitly had but an hour ago. "Reunion time. Figure out a rendezvous point." She couldn't help but notice how the soldier's hand had a brief moment of hesitation in it before Lightning touched Fang's fingers to grip the small communicator. "Don't sweat it," Fang said, careful not to let her pleasure at the small physical contact appear on her face. She was trying to put the soldier at ease after all. "That line's hyper-encrypted." Whatever that meant.

Lightning stared at the communicator for a moment before making a noise at the back of her throat of malcontent, which Fang presumed, was the soldier's version of 'hello' to Snow.

Fang couldn't hear what Snow was saying, but she did see Lightning's eyebrow twitch, as she responded with, "I'm not your sister." Lightning was silent again, as Snow was evidently speaking, before she finally said, "we'll meet at Hope's place. Felix Heights. 35-A." Then Lightning paused, and looked over at Fang.

Cerulean eyes caught jade ones again, but Fang couldn't read them now. "Hmm?" She asked, running her hand through her hair awkwardly. Snow had obviously said something to the solder about her, but what, she could not tell.

Then Lightning turned her attention away from Fang. "Snow, listen to me. It's about Hope. His mother was-!" Lightning was apparently cut off. "Hope!" She said, raising her voice. "Hope!"

Fang frowned. "Yelling doesn't fix it." She paused. Now how had Rydgea explained this to her again? "It's called... interference. You can chitchat when we get there." She reached out for the phone, hiding her pleasure once again as Lightning had to brush Fang's palm with her fingers to hand the device off.

And then Fang turned. "I've got point, you fall in behind." She paused. "And see if you can't cool off that head of yours."

Then Fang turned away from the other woman to take off, before the soldier could see the mild ire on Fang's own face. She realized that she too could benefit from her own advice.

They didn't have very far to go; a few more blocks, and they found themselves in slightly safer territory.

It was then that Lightning finally spoke her first direct words to Fang.

"Who are you?"

* * *

It was their first night in the Ark that Fang and Vanille were able to have their first real talk after being reunited. With no sign of an exit, and a team ready to collapse from sheer exhaustion, the group of L'Cie had decided it was time to rest.

They chose to do so in a small alcove they'd just cleared of pulsework enemies. Hope had promptly passed out when they came to a stop; Vanille looked like she was not far behind him. "We should take guard shifts," Lightning said. "I can take the first one, then Sazh, Snow, and Fang? Two hours each?"

"I can help too!" Vanille insisted weakly, though the exhaustion on her face was clearly evident to everyone else in the team. "I... I think I could hold out for another couple hours."

Lightning shook her head. Now was not the time for stubborn heroics. "Sorry - but you aren't in a helpful state." She could tell by the exhaustion on the younger girl's face that she would very likely fall asleep within minutes if everyone else already was with no one to keep her up.

Sazh, seeing the disappointment on Vanille's face at being unable to contribute, rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Hey, Lightning, listen. Why don't we let Fang and Vanille take the first shift? I think they probably have some catching up to do, and they can probably keep each other awake while they guard."

"Yeah," Fang added her piece. "From what we've seen so far, the style of the nasties here lean more towards 'blunder at you with chainsaws in the air' than 'slit your throat in your sleep'. We'll see anything coming, even if we're chatting."

Lightning thought about this for a moment, frowning. She wasn't pleased with the suggestion - chatting while guarding? They may not pay enough attention to their duties and let something slip through - but if Fang was okay with the arrangement, it would probably be alright. The hunter had been unfailingly reliable so far. "Alright then, Fang and Vanille can take the first shift. Then me, then Snow, and Sazh last?"

Sazh nodded. "Alright. And if Hope's awake by then, he can share my shift. You know, so he doesn't feel left out."

Everyone was in agreement, and so Fang and Vanille took the first shift, while everyone else grabbed a piece of floor around Hope.

Lightning laid in her spot for about ten minutes, before getting up, and silently creeping over to where Fang and Vanille sat, just outside of the alcove.

It was strictly for precaution's sake, she told herself. She barely knew anything about the two Pulsian natives. She just... needed to make sure they were trustworthy was all.

Curiosity as to the true nature of the two women's relationship had nothing to do with it. Nope.

Hiding herself around the corner, Lightning had to concentrate, but she could hear the other two's low voices clear enough.

They were recounting what had happened to each of them after their separation at Euride Plant. A small bit of relief crept across Lightning's heart when she realized that the story that Fang was recounting to Vanille was very consistent to the story the tall woman had told Lightning herself when they had first met. Lightning wasn't sure why, but she realized she would have been significantly bothered had Fang been lying to her.

Vanille's story too, was quite consistent to those parts that Lightning herself had experienced.

"I guess we must have missed each other by mere meters at Bodhum during the fireworks then, huh?" Fang was saying. "Damn. That could have saved days of trouble, yeah?"

"Maybe," Vanille admitted. "But I think we're better off now than before. I mean, if we had found each other then, we wouldn't have found more comrades now, right?"

Somewhat satisfied that all was well, Lightning was about to turn back to get some rest when the conversation suddenly got... interesting.

"Fair enough," Fang said softly. Suddenly, her voice got wistful. "Vanille, what do you think of Light?"

"Lightning?" Vanille repeated. And then the tone in her voice suddenly got more animated and bubbly. Lightning could practically hear the smile on Vanille's face in the younger woman's voice. "Aaah! I thought I saw something when we were fighting Barthandelus! Do you fancy her?"

Lightning froze.

"... actually, Vanille, I think it might be more than that." Fang said softly.

If humanly possible, Vanille's voice got even more high pitched and squealy. "Oooh, what happened?"

"Stop trying to imitate a baby rodent," Fang admonished, though the good humour was still obvious in her voice. "It was our first battle. She didn't know who I was, didn't even know my name, and all I knew about her was what Snow had told me about her, which was not much. There were... I can't remember how many enemy, and we just..." and here, Fang's voice dropped, and there was a strange, almost worshipful tone to her voice, "... we danced."

There was a pause, and Lightning thought her heart had skipped a beat. What did Fang mean, exactly, 'we danced'? And yet, the more Lightning thought about it, the more appropriate the description became.

Even now, Lightning could remember the exhilaration of having her thoughts and intentions being completely understood without words. She could remember how glorious it had been to be able to just give herself into battle instincts, and known implicitly, (though there was no way she could have or should have) that her partner would join her, and do exactly what they needed to do. She could remember the majesty of being completely in synch and together with someone else.

It was the reason she'd gotten along with Fang so well and so quickly. Lightning had not ever been so quick to accept anyone else in their group - heck, anyone else in her *life* as quickly as she'd accepted Oerba Yun Fang, to the point where she'd even allowed the other woman to examine her L'Cie brand, marked on the very private track of skin that it was, within scant hours of them meeting.

No, Lightning realized, Fang was right. Something had happened when they had... danced. And to hear Fang speak so reverently about the experience... Lightning put a hand onto her chest.

_~... I shouldn't be hearing this! I really, really shouldn't be hearing this!~_

But she couldn't tear herself away.

The silence in the air stretched for a moment longer, before Vanille broke the spell with a confused, "... Fang, I'm not sure I understand. What do you mean, 'you danced'?"

At that, Fang sighed. "I don't know how to explain it, Vanille." She finally said. "All I know was... it was incredible."

"Hmmm... well, help spell it out for me here. Are you going to court her, or just bed her? Ow! What was that for?"

"For being crude, Vanille." Fang replied coolly. "Besides, we're in the middle of our bloody focus. It's hardly the time to be thinking of that, yeah?"

"Oh, please, like that would ever stop y-! Ow! Fang, quiddit!"

"Not if you insist on being a brat!" There was a pause. "Ah, quit your pouting, Vanille. You know you'll always be my number one."

Vanille sniffed icily. "Yeah? Well, who treats their number one the way you do! Hmph!"

The Pulsians' discussions then dissolved into banality, and Lighting released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She wasn't quite sure what to think. On the one hand, her eavesdropping had given her some answers, but at the same time, questions - of a sort she had been entirely *not* expecting - had definitely been raised.

Almost shakily (almost, not quite), she went back to where the men folk were resting. Snow and Hope had passed out, but Sazh was still up, idly stroking the head of the baby chocobo. He looked up as Lightning came back. "Everything alright?" He asked.

"Yeah," Lightning replied quickly. Probably too quickly. She settled into her own spot, and shut her eyes. Sleep would not come to her quickly though. Her thoughts continued to swirl around the tall Pulsian woman, their 'dancing', and the conversation she had overheard.

* * *

Not too long after Vanille and Fang's conversation, the whole group got first hand exposure to what Fang meant when she said she and Lightning had 'danced'.

They had lost track of how long they'd been trapped inside the ark, and an almost tangible tension had risen in the group. It all finally came to a head when Sazh cracked, after they found themselves at a dead-end.

"I have had enough of this!" Cried the older man. "Where's the way out?"

It was Snow who was finally able to pull the group together.

"Way out? Who said there was one?"

As the group turned to address the lug, who's oddly quiet contemplation had added not a small part in fraying the collectives' nerves, he finally grinned, his first grin in too long, and punched his fist into his palm.

"My mind is made up. Maybe I will end up a Cie'th. But until that happens, I'm gonna make Serah proud." He pulled a familiar blue jewel from his pocket. "I couldn't bring myself to admit that this tear meant goodbye. And that's why I kept searching for her. But I didn't need to. Serah was here the whole time, right here, watching over me. Now I get it. What this tear's been telling me is to not let our focus win. It's not the Fal'Cie we should listen to. It's Serah and Raines. Do you know why? Because our focus doesn't matter. What matters to me is that we protect Cocoon whatever it takes."

Then, he held out his palm.

Fang raised her eyebrow. She couldn't believe what the idiot had declared. Well, actually, she could believe that the idiot had declared such idiocy, but the point remained that Snow's sentiments were just that: sentimental. And suicidal. Fang crossed her arms, ready to speak up...

... and then Vanille, from out of nowhere, walked up to Snow, and put her hand on to of his. "Same here!" Vanille said, a smile - a genuine smile - on her face. "I'll help you do it!"

Fang stared at the back of Vanille's head silently, incredulously. _~What the hell are you saying, Missy?~_ The feeling of unease in her heart only grew as Hope chimed in his support, as did Sazh, and the baby chocobo.

And even as Snow said, "When a chocobo agrees, you know you're on the right path", Fang looked over at the other silent woman in their group and couldn't help but notice Lightning crossing her own arms with a grim smile of approval on her face.

Fang clenched her fists, fighting the anxiety that roiled in her stomach.

Naive dreamers, all of them. She was obviously surrounded by naive dreamers who'd never actually experienced the horror of watching a love one transform into a monster.

"Well count me out."

Fang's voice rang loud and crisply in the air as she unfolded her arms and put her hands on her hips. She turned on her heels, grinding her teeth together as she walked purposefully away from the group. "If you all want to go it on your own..." she pulled her spear from her back, and with a loud swoop, assumed an attacking stance. "Then so will I."

Cries and murmurs of incredulousness echoed loudly in the air, but the one word Fang heard most clearly over all the commotion was actually Lightning's disapproving, "Fang-"

She glared at the soldier, not letting her finish.

"Let Cocoon get what's coming," Fang snarled, powering her words with the righteous rage she'd known since she was seven in the deepest reaches of her heart.

"They hate us for being L'Cie. What's it to me if they die? Better that, than to watch a friend go Cie'th!"

Images of so many friends, lost to monstrosity, passed through her mind's eye. Proud Tombas. Petulant Shayla.

Fang looked Vanille directly in the eye. _~You know what I'm talking about,~_ she thought, knowing the other girl would understand. Vanille whimpered and covered her mouth with her hands.

And yet... despite the conviction Fang felt in her heart, as she looked into the eyes of each one of her current companions, she could not help but feel her heart rage war with itself.

After all, they were all in the same boat together. She wasn't alone anymore.

But no. Fang shook her head. She couldn't think like that. If she thought like that, then Vanille, and then everyone else, would go Cie'th. "If you don't have the nerve for it, I'll do it myself. Go on alone, get stronger, and smash Cocoon out of the sky!"

Vanille tried to rush forward, but Lightning put an arm out in front to stop the younger woman.

Clear cerulean eyes bore against clouded jade ones as they warred, so many words exchanged without being said, even as Fang struggled to speak, to convince herself of her convictions. But even as she spoke, she could feel the rage in her heart starting to burn, as though physical. A searing pain began to burn her from the inside out, ripping through her body. "You... turn Cie'th... and there's no... coming back...! I'm not...! Letting it...! End that way!"

And with that, Fang gave a howl of anguish as her brand, thought scorched and useless, finally activated and glowed a piercing white light, even as ancient magic runes and summoning circles spontaneously lite up the ground under her.

Ominous, rumbling clouds thundered above, and from their midst, a beast gave a roar of challenge and burst into existence upon mighty black wings.

Fang swallowed, voice hoarse. "W-what's he doing here?" She mumbled to herself, still winded and on her knees.

_~I *know* what I have to do! I'm not...! I'm not confused!~_

So then why was her Eidolon summoned? Why was Bahamut - for Fang realized that she knew its name - why was Bahamut here? Though she had never seen the beast before, she knew that was what it was. Bahamut was a gift from Etro, sent to open a path in her heart and mind for her, or to grant her the final mercy.

But even as she'd said the question out loud, she knew the answer.

Her heart wasn't anywhere close to being resolute.

She made a fist, shouting defiantly at the Eidolon. "Come to take pity on me? Come to take care of a broken L'Cie?"

Snow spoke, incredulousness evident in his voice. "That thing's here to *help* us?"

"Yeah, 'help'," Fang spat. "That's what Eidolons do, they 'help' us. Eidolons are our salvation. If we can't decide what to do next, they come put us out of our misery!"

Snow nodded. Then he blinked, and looked at Fang again. "Wait, so, you *haven't* made up your mind yet?"

Fang didn't have time to respond. Bahamut screeched and shot a blast of energy directly at her.

_~Shi-!~_ Fang cursed, unable to get to her feet. But she didn't have to. In that split second, Vanille rushed to her side while Lightning stepped in front of her. Snow stepped in front of Lightning and deflected Bahamut's shot with a steelguard.

Fang stared at the back of Lightning's head. "Why are you protecting me? What are you doing?"

Lightning spoke, not quite yet facing Fang. "Protecting one of our own. We can do without their brand of mercy, and we don't need a Fal'Cie's orders either. I'm fighting this focus to the end. We all are. So please..."

Then Lighting turned and offered her hand to Fang. Blue eyes locked on green once more. "Fight with us."

And Fang could hear what Lightning hadn't said:

_Fight with *me*. _

Fang held Lightning's gaze for an eternity in a moment, strategy passing between them silently and unbidden once more, before Fang looked away, 'che-ing' under her breathe as she took Lightning's offered hand and allowed Vanille to help her to her feet.

_~Like I can say no now.~ _

It only took a moment more for strength to return to Fang's limbs as she swung her spear around. "Ready when you are."

Lightning smiled grimly back at Fang.

Wordlessly, they charged Bahamut, even as Fang felt one of Vanille's cure spells hit her square in the back, revitalizing her.

And then, they danced once more.

Bahamut was a significantly more difficult opponent than the PSICOM division they had torn apart, but still, their synchronism was exquisite. Much of the battle was spent dodging Bahamut's devastating attacks, and even when they could not, their acrobatic leaps, volleys and swings carried each other through the blasts such that damage was minimal. There were no words; none were needed.

Their companions were in awe; Sazh and Snow had tried to join the fray (why go 3 against 1 when they could go 6 against 1), but Bahamut's devastation prevented them from being able to even approach the raging Eidolon, and Hope and Vanille found that their curative spells were largely going in Sazh and Snow's direction over Fang and Lightning's.

The battle was short. Barely able to touch Fang and Lightning, the Eidolon soon gave a roar of approval, and shot into the air, transforming into a dragon.

Fang leapt onto Bahamut's back, completing her mastery of the Eidolon, to the cheering of her companions. But whilst those noises of pride and congratulations felt fantastic, it was Lightning's silently approving cerulean eyes that made Fang feel like she was on top of the world.

When Fang landed, it was Vanille who rushed to embrace her first. "Okay!" The redhead whispered into Fang's ears, eyes twinkling. "Dancing! I get it!"

Fang bonked Vanille on the forehead lightly, though she was grinning. Her eyes sought out Lightning's, but their defacto leader had turned away.

* * *

Their first night on Gran Pulse was thankfully quiet in stark contrast to their arrival on the land earlier in the day. After Sazh had ensured the wreckage of the airship was not about to explode, they had decided to settle there for the night while contemplating their next move.

Fang found dinner, which Vanille prepared with help from Hope. It wasn't the best meal, and the Cocoonians definitely hadn't been used to the flavour, but they made do. It was in the late evening now, and most everyone was gathered around the campfire in conversation about the day's activities when Fang realized that Lightning hadn't come back from excusing herself earlier.

She set out to look for their leader, finding her a little ways away, staring up at the sky.

There was a look of absolute wonder on Lightning's face, an expression Fang had not yet seen on the other woman's countenance before. She wasn't aware Lightning was even capable of such an expression.

It was *very* fetching.

Fang wasn't sure how long she stood there staring at the gorgeous soldier; eventually, Lightning sensed someone was close by and looked over at Fang, who waved a greeting.

"Yes?" Lightning asked.

"Just wondering if fearless leader got lost looking for the bushes," Fang replied, walking up to the other woman. "What has your attention so?"

Lightning's lips twitched, as though she didn't quite want to say anything, but eventually, she motioned up to the sky. "I've never seen anything like this," the woman admitted. "It's just so... I mean... have you ever seen anything so beautiful?"

Fang looked up and could see what Lightning was referring to. Amidst a galaxy full of twinkling stars, Cocoon hung low in the sky, glowing serenely. Miniature lights sparkled from the crack in its shell, creating the illusion that the celestial orb glittered.

She could understand why Lightning would find the view impressive - why any Cocoonian would - but to Fang, it wasn't quite so wonderful. It was difficult to change a lifetime of perception after all. "Actually, yeah, I have," she replied to Lightning's question. She purposefully cast her eyes downwards, letting her gaze linger up the soldier's body appreciatively, before meeting her eyes to Lightning's own again and winking. "Way more beautiful."

For a moment Lightning looked a little embarrassed and lost for words before she recovered enough to smirk and roll her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest as she turned away from Fang to look up at the night sky again. "You try that line on all the girls?"

"Hell no." Fang retorted, but with no ire in her voice. Instead, she sighed a short, bitter sweet sigh. Those days were so long ago. "Comparing a girl's beauty to the viper's nest wouldn't have gotten me very far."

The soldier stiffened. She looked back at Fang for a moment, a complex expression invoking thoughts of surprise then realization in her eyes, before looking away again.

Idly, Fang realized that Lightning had good reason to wear an expressionless mask all the time. The soldier's sharp features were so naturally expressive, if she didn't keep a tight rein on them, she'd unwittingly divulge her mind for everyone to read, plain on her face.

"Right." Lightning finally said. "For a moment there, I forgot you weren't from Cocoon."

Fang smiled. "That's not such a bad thing now is it?"

Lightning didn't answer, but somehow, Fang got the impression the soldier agreed.

They stood in silence for a short moment before Fang strengthened her resolve. "... I want to thank you, Light." She said softly.

Lightning looked over at her, an eyebrow quirked questioningly.

Fang rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "For what you did, for what you said, back at the Ark. With Bahamut. I... forget that I'm not in this alone anymore sometimes."

Understanding lighted in Lightning's eyes. "Don't mention it." She said, before pausing. Her next words were tentative, as though she wasn't quite sure how best to phrase them. "... in the ark, you had said, 'it was better to watch Cocoon get what's coming than to watch a friend go Cie'th'..." Lightning's brow furrowed. "You were speaking from personal experience, weren't you?"

Fang was expressionless for a moment, before she sighed, and turned to look up at the stars, the same way Lightning had done earlier. "The night is warm, the stars and even Cocoon can been called beautiful, and for now, everything is calm. We won't have too many more nights like this soon, so let's leave sorrowful memories for another time, yeah?"

Lightning thought about this before agreeing. "... alright."

And so they stood in silence once again for a little while longer, before Lightning's next words caught Fang by surprise. "I... want to thank you too."

Now it was Fang's turn to be puzzled. "What for?"

Lightning's brow crinkled again as she struggled to find the right words. "... for deciding to fight with us." Her voice grew soft. "... to fight... with me. No one's ever been able to... *get* me... like you do."

Fang's lifted her eyebrows in surprise as she regarded Lightning.

"This whole situation is horrible." Lightning continued. She couldn't quite look Fang in the eye yet. "Too many people have died, and we'll probably go the same way in the near future. Before I go... I'm glad we had a chance to..." Lightning struggled for the right word.

And then they both said it at the same time.

"... Dance."

Lightning finally turned to look at Fang, and the honesty in her eyes took the hunter's breath away.

Neither of them said anything after that.

There was no need to.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES & OMAKE:

My apologies that 2 out of 4 scenes in this chapter were essentially a novelization of certain scenes directly from the game. I thought telling those scenes from Fang's POV, and then embellishing with a couple of made up scenes would help to explain how FxL come to be.

Wish Bahamut was actually as easy as I described though; guubear and I had to fight him almost 10 times before we made it through. -_-;;

Next chapter 8 will be III.4, set post game!

Cheers,

Jen-chan

* * *

OMAKE 1: Eavesdropping

[FANG and VANILLE are having their not-so-private conversation in the ark while LIGHTNING eavesdrops]

FANG: So, what do you think of Light?

VANILLE: Lightning? She's okay, I guess.

LIGHTNING: [eyebrow twitching. Thinks to herself] 'Just 'okay'? Why you little-!'

FANG: Vanille, you need to get your eyes checked! She is the hottest thing this side of the Shiva sisters in a twincest arrangement! Man! I'd give my left arm to tap that fine tail!

LIGHTNING: ... ... ... [sweatdrops profusely. Thinks to herself] ... maybe I shouldn't be listening in on this. [Turns to go but realizes that SNOW, SAZH & HOPE are also eavesdropping right behind her]

HOPE/SNOW/SAZH: [all nodding in agreement with FANG's assessment]

LIGHTNING: [smacks a halisen across the backs of HOPE/SNOW/SAZH's heads]

* * *

OMAKE 2: Can't Fault Her For Trying

[LIGHTNING and FANG are staring up at COCOON]

LIGHTNING: ... The whole situation is horrible. Too many people have died, and we'll probably go the same way in the near future. Before I go... I'm glad we had a chance to...

FANG: [Hopefully] Screw?

LIGHTNING: ... nice try.

* * *

OMAKE 3: Cool Entrance

[SNOW and FANG look down at LIGHTNING and HOPE in PALUMPOLUM SQUARE]

FANG: Come on, Snow! I need to make a really cool entrance to impress Lightning!

SNOW: One cool entrance, coming up!

[SNOW calls the SHIVA MOTOR-CYCLE and they ride it down the ice ramp while gunning down their enemies like they were in a John Woo movie. At the end of the ramp though, SNOW loses control of SHIVA and they wipe out.]

SNOW/FANG: Aaaah!

[SNOW/FANG/SHIVA crash spectacularly into a wall in a tangle of limbs as SHIVA turns back into sexy-women mode].

HOPE: ... [sweatdrops]

LIGHTNING: [Hooded half-eyes. Deadpans] Wow. I'm so impressed. Take me, I'm yours.


	4. Ch 4 III 3 The Goddess Etro

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 4: (III.3) The Goddess Etro  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By Jen-chan  
January 26 - 29, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Postgame. Lightning has found Fang & Vanille, but satisfaction eludes her. The quest to truly be reunited begins!

* * *

Sometimes, Oerba Yun Fang thought, eternal life could be a lot like eternal hell.

Like, now, for example.

She watched as Lightning Farron stared up at Fang's own crystallized body, an expression of such intense, painful, *longing* on Lightning's face that it could have launched a thousand ships on crusade to sooth it.

She watched as Lightning reached out, and gently touched her fingertips to Fang's cold, dead, face, and let it linger there for a moment.

She watched as Lightning quietly crumpled to the ground, those fingers now balled into fists. Lightning wasn't crying, Lightning doesn't *cry*, but her shoulders shook as though she wanted to.

She watched as Lightning repeatedly punched the ground of the crystallized cavern, over and over, breaking her fist but still not stopping.

She watched, and could do nothing.

Thought that didn t stop her from trying.

"Stop that!" Fang shouted. "You know that's not going to help! How are you supposed to climb your arse out of here with a broken hand?"

Lightning didn't stop - she couldn't hear Fang's words. Of course, this being Lightning, even if she *could* hear Fang, she might not have stopped anyway, but regardless, it still made Fang seethe at her own impotence.

It took a while, but eventually, the pain must have registered in Lightning's mind, because she finally stopped, choked out a strangled cry of frustration, and cradled her hand to her chest.

Fang sighed. The soldier had just used up the last of her potion to heal her arm and ribs. There would be nothing left for this wound.

"... I'm sorry, Sunshine. But this is why you shouldn't have come looking for us." Fang said softly, crouched down beside Lightning. Not that Lightning could hear her. She reached out to stroke Lightning's hair. Not that her fingers could ever reach that pink softness.

Fang bit her lip and closed her eyes, standing back up again. She'd been 'haunting' Lightning for a year now, trying to make contact countless, *countless* times. She'd never succeeded; why did she think she would now?

Vanille appeared beside Fang, breathless though she didn't need to breathe. "They're coming!" She cried, "I screamed and yelled and got some dishes to fall, and I think Serah understood! She and Snow are trying to get Sazh to steal an airship to get here!"

The red-haired girl crouched down beside Fang and addressed Lightning, yelling as loudly as she could at the soldier, as though loudness would help carry her words through. "Don't worry, Light! Help's coming! They'll be here soon!"

And then Vanille noticed the state of Lightning's right hand and her own hands flew to her mouth, "oh, Goddess, Fang, what did she do to her hand?"

Fang didn't have the heart to answer Vanille.

The younger girl, sensing that now was not the time to press the issue, could only look back at the soldier sadly.

The cavern was quiet, save for the sound of Lightning's heavy breathing. The two not-quite-alive Pulsians sat beside the still living Cocoonian in silence, unable to comfort her, only each other (Fang put a hand on Vanille's back when she noticed tears streaming down the other girl's face). The melancholy seemed to last for an eternity, before Lightning finally, shakily, got to her feet.

Seeing Lightning move, Fang and Vanille got to their feet too.

Without a word, Lightning stalked away from the crystallized forms of her friends and went back to the wall of the crystal cavern, underneath the crack to the outside she'd fallen through. Any sign of her earlier breakdown was gone from her face as she surveyed the walls with cool, analytical concentration.

Fang couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. "Alright, that's my girl. Never stay down," she said encouragingly to Lightning, looking up at the crystal walls with her. She had felt lost when Lightning had broken down, but now that Lightning's steel determination had returned, Fang knew that eventually, the soldier would be okay.

"Come on now, *think* soldier!" Fang barked, "how do you get out of here?"

Lightning couldn't have heard Fang's encouragement, but at that moment, she made a face and looked down at her hand, testing it. "Smart, Farron," Lightning muttered to herself. "Break your only chance of getting out of here."

Still, broken hand and bruised ribs or no, Lightning attempted the climb, cautiously.

Fang had to feel admiration for the soldier's sheer stubbornness; Lightning kept at it for a several hours (Vanille had shouted her unheard encouragement the entire time), but could not get more than a few feet up off the floor of the cavern.

By that time, it was dark outside. Lightning nibbled at a protein bar from her backpack, cracked open a fresh glow stick, and went back to Fang and Vanille's crystallized bodies, apparently getting ready to settle in for the night.

"Go to sleep, Light!" Vanille pleaded, when the soldier failed to do so, opting to pace back and forth instead. "If you go to sleep, at least we'll be able to talk to you in your dreams!"

"Don't get your hopes up, Vanille," Fang replied tiredly, though she too wished that Lighting would rest. "Remember the Steppe? She can pace all night." At times, Lightning's stubbornness really was a pain.

Eventually, Lightning stopped her pacing, and looked up at her friends' crystal forms.

Fang blinked. "Light?" Her heart yearned as she saw the soft expression in Lightning's eyes, wishing oh so much that she could just wrap her arms around the other woman.

The soldier reached up, and tenderly ran her fingers along Fang's crystal jaw line; Fang shivered, imagining what that sensation might have felt like.

"I swear to you, Fang," Lightning she said softly, out loud. "I swear to both of you. Wait for me. I will find a way to free you."

The room lapsed into silence once more, as the soldier continued to stare up at Fang and Vanille's crystallized forms, as though waiting for an answer.

Fang smiled sadly. "Yeah, sure, Sunshine." She said finally. She gave Vanille a sardonic look, who was rubbing a tear from her eye. "It's not like we're going anywhere."

And then a voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once:

_'YOU WILL.'_

Fang jumped. Vanille did too.

And so did Lightning.

As one, they all whirled around to address the one who had spoken.

* * *

"Who's there," Lightning demanded as she reflexively reached for her gunblade when she heard the all encompassing voice. Her right hand screamed in protest, causing her to wince.

And then her eyes opened wide as she saw who had spoken. At once, Lightning felt a sense of awe and wonder wash over her as she gazed upon the shimmering, glowing, beautiful deity before her. Lightning could not find the words to describe her - wasn't even sure if it was a 'her', though for some reason, that felt right. She was at the same time beautiful and terrible, celestial and common, godly and human. It was maddening to look at her. She was blinding, and yet Lightning could not look away.

_'IT WILL HELP IF YOU THINK OF ME AS HUMAN. USE YOUR WILL. SHAPE ME INTO A FORM THAT WHICH YOU MAY COMPREHEND.'_

The instructions barely made sense, but somehow, Lightning understood.

Almost unbidden, the image of a woman came to Lightning's mind, and she focused on that. As she did so, gradually, the blinding light faded away, leaving spots in Lightning's eyes. When they left, Lightning found a magnificent woman - no, not a woman, a *Goddess* - in front of her. She was a willowy seven feet tall, pale white, and wore a long, white, fluttering dress which seemed to flow off her body like a spring stream on a glacial mountain. Her wavy hair, equally pale, seemed to stretch forever, lost into the folds of her dress. Silver eyes sparkled with fondness as they gazed down at Lightning.

Lightning opened her mouth to speak, but the Goddess spoke first.

_'My name is Etro, Claire.' _The Goddess's lips didn't move, but her voice could still be heard like the chiming of church bells in the wind.

Lightning frowned. "How do you kn-"

_'We met once before, and you shared everything with me.'_

Lightning blinked, trying to remember the occasion. Her eyes flashed wide as she remembered: it had been in Orphan's Cradle. She... they... had gone Cie'th. Everything was cold, and dark, and then... and then... Etro had been there, and Lightning had seen a glimpse of something wonderful, and came back to her senses.

Everything had happened so quickly after that. As Lightning had come back to the world, she had heard Fang's screams of torture. She had forgotten about the Goddess's presence quickly, consumed as she had been for Fang's well being.

_~Fang.~_

The Goddess's eyes softened further. _'She is here too.'_

Lightning's jaw dropped. "Wha-where?"

The Goddess's eyes flickered to the side, and Lightning followed them...

... and standing not two feet away, right beside her, apparently having her own concurrent conversation with the Goddess Etro, was Oerba Yun Fang. Beside Fang was Vanille, holding her hands in fists, with an emphatic expression on her face.

Fang looked exactly as Lightning had seen her in her black-out wrought dreams earlier that day - right down to the concern on her features and the fact that her mouth was opening and closing, except that those words were not directed at Lightning herself, but rather at the Goddess.

" -out of here!" Fang was saying insistently to the Goddess, "who knows how long it'll take them to find her here! It could be days, and she's hurt!"

_'She will be found soon enough,'_ the Goddess replied. _'You all will.'_

Fang quirked an eyebrow and her expression went from concerned to annoyed. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

The Goddess didn't respond, but Lightning got the impression she was laughing.

Lightning wasn't sure what the Goddess had been discussing with Fang (or how she could hold a completely separate conversation with someone whom Lightning was certain hadn't been there a moment prior), but she soon got the gist of it.

Fang sighed, running her hand through her hair in frustration. "Look, Your Providence," Fang said, even as she looked directly at Lightning. "Please. I know she came here of her own free will, so I know it's her own damn fault for getting herself into this mess, but, I'm begging you. Don't... Don't let anything happen to her. Just let her forget about me. Let her move on."

Lightning was taken aback, both by Fang's words, as well as the open *feeling* in the way she was saying them.

_'Shouldn't she be allowed to make her own choice?'_ The Goddess finally asked, that knowing smile still on her lips.

"No!" Fang replied, vehemently. She looked away from Lightning, regret and longing plain as day in her jade eyes. "No, because she'll make the wrong one."

Lightning's left eyebrow twitched. What the hell was Fang saying? And why the hell was Fang talking about her like she didn't think she could hear her?

Though she knew it was ridiculous, Lightning couldn't help but feel righteous anger rising inside. "Oh, you're one to talk about bad decisions!" She retorted crossly.

Fang jumped as though she'd heard from a ghost. Wiping her head back around so quickly she should have given herself whiplash, she stared at Lightning incredulously. At the same time, Vanille gave a squeal of surprise, bringing her hands to her mouth.

"And just who thought listening to Barthandelus and trying to go Ragnarok by herself was a good idea?" Lightning quipped. She stepped right up into Fang's personal space, causing the other woman to take an involuntary step back. It was strange that she couldn't feel the other woman's body heat despite being right in her face, but Lightning was, at the moment, too angry to care.

"Y-you can see me?" Fang blurted, stupefied.

"Of course I can!" Lightning cried. She took another step forward; Fang took another step back. "Dammit all, Fang, how *DARE* you try to decide my future for me! *You* of all people!"

Unable to keep her rage in check, Lightning took a swing at the taller woman.

She never connected. Her fist passed right through where Fang's jaw should have been, and she ended up swinging wildly, unbalancing herself. It was a testament to how hard she'd swung; she fell to the ground. "Ogf!"

"Light!" Fang cried, bending down to try to help Lightning up. Her hands passed right through Lightning's back. Vanille tried to help too, but found the same result.

Lightning picked herself up off the ground slowly, her heart dropping into her stomach. She stared at Fang, and then at Vanille, and saw the anguish on the other women's faces, finally understanding. "Oh... God..." Lightning breathed. She reached out, her arm trembling. "Fang... Vanille..."

Fang looked pained. Wordlessly, she reached out for Lightning too.

Their fingertips passed through each other.

Lightning swallowed the lump in her throat down. "You're... ghosts?"

_'... In a sense, yes. In a sense, no.'_

They turned to look at the Goddess whom had spoken. She was no longer smiling. Her eyes were sad.

_'These two were given the choice of eternal life, but they could not fully go. Their bodies are now part of eternity, but their minds, their souls, are bound to this world, for they chose to protect it, and their loved ones. And so they exist, in this state, eternal, but not.'_

__

_

* * *

_

Vanille wasn't sure what to do. The Goddess Etro had visited Fang and herself twice before, once when they had first become crystal, 500 years ago, and once again one year ago, when they had entered crystal sleep once more. During those times, she had asked them the same question: whether they wished to gain eternity.

The first time, Vanille had said yes, and she had fallen into her crystal slumber, a deep, dreamless sleep.

The second time, Vanille had said no. She wanted to look after her friends - her family - make sure everything went smoothly for them, and so her consciousness had remained, with Fang's.

She hadn't realized, at the time, just how difficult it could be, to only be able to watch over her loved ones, but not to interact with them.

Still, if she had to make the same choice again, she would, and hold out hope that maybe, one day, she *would* be able to interact with them again.

Like now.

Vanille looked over at her oldest friend; Fang was staring at Lightning, who was staring back at Fang with a look of utter disbelief on her face after the Goddess Etro had dropped the bomb on her.

It was so obvious to Vanille, that her two friends had so much they wanted, *needed*, to say to each other at that moment, but it appeared that neither of them could get those words out.

Vanille, herself, knew very well what was in Fang's heart. They had talked often enough, foolish dreams, about what they would say to their friends, if ever they were reunited. Of course, they had never imagined that it would go like this.

As Fang and Lightning continued to stare at each other, Vanille couldn't help but want to help, however she could. She looked over at the Goddess Etro, who remained silent.

_~If you can't face it now... But no! No more running away! This isn't running way!~_

"Um, Your Providence," Vanille finally broke the silence. The Goddess looked at her, as did Fang and Lightning. "Do you think we could... give these two some privacy? I think they have some catching up to do."

It was a bit of a sham; Etro likely saw and knew all no matter where she was, and Fang and Vanille, being in crystal sleep together, often found that they could share their consciousness, if they wished for it. Anything Lightning said to Fang, Vanille could hear, if she wanted to, but Lightning didn't have to know that for now.

"Vanille," Fang said softly.

"You don't have to go." Lightning finished quickly.

Vanille smiled at them. They were finishing each other's sentences. It was kinda cute! "But I do. Don't worry! I'll just be outside. Fang, just... call when you're finished."

Vanille gave Fang a knowing wink and then concentrated, shifting her consciousness away.

Vanille willed herself to be where Serah and Snow were, and soon found herself in their presence. She could feel the Goddess Etro beside her, though the Goddess remained silent.

Serah and Snow were currently on an air bike, driving as fast as they could to meet up with Sazh and Hope, who had finally managed to commandeer an airship. Vanille couldn't help but smile fondly as she pointed them out to the Goddess. "Look - it's Snow and Serah!" She said, before remembering who she was speaking to. "But, oh, right, you... probably already know that."

The Goddess only smiled indulgingly at Vanille.

"I'm going to follow them," Vanille said. She knew she really didn't have to explain her actions to Etro, but did so out of force of habit.

Soon, the four ex-L'Cie had all met up, and were flying at top speed towards the pillar. They had gathered in the cockpit of the aircraft, talking worriedly to each other. Vanille and the Goddess joined them.

"What the hell's going on?" Sazh shouted, even as he piloted.

"We don't know," Snow replied. "Serah and I were just at home, and suddenly the whole place started to shake, like it was an earthquake or something, strong enough to knock the dishes out of the cupboards. And the next thing I know, I swear I can hear Vanille's voice screaming at me to go find Lightning."

"I saw the same thing," Hope said, his brows furrowed. "I was in class. We were having weapon drills, and I could have sworn I saw Vanille right in front of me, saying Lightning was in trouble."

"How close are we?" Serah asked, concern obviously present in her voice, and on her face. "Oh, why didn't she tell me where she was going?" She was beside herself with worry; Snow pulled her close to him in an effort to comfort her.

"We're getting pretty close," Sazh replied. "I've picked up the GPS on her communicator. She's thrown the emergency switch. She's somewhere in the crystal pillar."

Snow boggled. "In the crystal pillar? Inside it? How'd she get in there?"

"Beats me," Sazh replied. "Worse yet, I don't think I'll be able to get anywhere close to the trunk with this thing. If we knew exactly where she was, we might be able to get close enough to lower rope, but that's only if we knew exactly where she was."

"Oh! I could tell you that!" Vanille piped up.

Stunned silence permeated throughout the cockpit.

As one, Sazh, Snow, Serah and Hope all turned back and looked at the girl who, they would swear later, had not been there a second ago.

Vanille blinked at the shocked stares she was getting. "... uh... can you guys see me?"

The stunned silence persisted.

And then erupted into chaos.

* * *

"Vanille, wait-!" Lightning called, but the younger red-headed girl had simply winked and disappeared. The soldier looked quickly to where the Goddess Etro had stood and noted that the deity too, seemed to have vanished into thin air. Lightning looked at Fang. "Where did they go?"

Fang had a faraway look in her eyes as she seemed to be concentrating on something. "She's about thirty kilometers away," Fang finally said. "She's with Snow and Serah and... oh yeah, Sazh and Hope too. They're together and headed this way."

Lightning blinked, a million questions rushing through her head. "They're headed this... wait, you can tell where Vanille is like that?"

"Hmm?" The faraway look left Fang's eyes, and she focused on Lightning. "Uh, yeah." She tapped the side of her forehead. "I think we're linked."

A thousand more questions rushed through Lightning's mind. In the end, all she could manage to say was a simple, "oh."

They lapsed into awkward silence again, and Lightning suddenly found herself keenly embarrassed, unable to look at the other woman. Lightning's mind whirred, moving at speeds nowhere near her namesake. She snuck a glance at Fang; the not-quite-alive woman had a complicated expression on her face as well and was rubbing the back of her head uncomfortably.

It was Fang who spoke first, with a soft curse under her breath. "Damn it, Light, there were so many things that I wanted to say to you, but... I don't know where to start."

Lightning looked up at Fang fully this time. "Neither do I," Lightning admitted.

How many times had she yearned for this moment? How many sleepless nights had she spent crafting suitable words in her mind?

None of them seemed appropriate.

Especially since the first thing Lightning had tried to do upon being reunited with the other woman, was to try to knock her head off.

Then, Lighting saw Fang tentatively move her hand. Instinctively, she followed the limb's motion, as it raised, stopped, and then, slowly, hesitantly, reached out to cup Lightning's cheek. A stab went through the soldier's heart as she realized she could not feel Fang's touch or warmth.

But when she turned her eyes to look back at Fang's, it was like cerulean skies meeting the bottomless jade ocean out in the horizon, and she could feel Fang's heart, Fang's feelings.

"Look at us, acting like a couple of school girls." Fang cracked a small, sad smile. "Doesn't this remind you of that night in Sulyya?"

Lightning couldn't help the blush that came to her cheeks from that special memory. She smiled.

And then, just like that, the awkwardness in the silence vanished, and the companionable, wordless understanding that they shared which they both so treasured, was back.

And all was right in the world again.

Almost.

Suddenly, Lightning realized which question, out of the dozens that had burned in her mind, was most important. "Fang?"

"Hmm?"

Lightning's voice was soft. "This... this entire year... I could feel someone... *with* me. Looking after me. That... That was you, wasn't it?"

Fang's eyes softened fondly. "Yeah. That was me."

"Was that you, in my dreams too? Telling me to move on? To not come looking for you and Vanille?"

Sadness entered Fang's eyes again. "... Yeah."

"... did you mean it?" Lightning paused, fighting down the anxiety in her stomach. "Are you and Vanille happy? Like this?"

Fang didn't answer. But the anguish in those unfathomable jade depths told Lightning all she needed to know.

The anxiety evaporated from Lightning's stomach, and she smiled. It was not like her last few, sad or small, but was one of determination. "Then in that case, I'm afraid you won't be able to stop me. I *will* bring you and Vanille back."

Fang quirked an eyebrow. For a moment, it looked like she wanted to argue, but then she sighed, and even laughed ruefully. "Yeah, I should have known better than to try to stop you."

_'THEN LET US BEGIN.'_

And the world exploded in blinding light once more.

* * *

Lightning opened her eyes.

She was no longer in the crystal cavern.

Instead, she was in what looked to be a ruined temple of some sort. The predominate decor of the room was crystal, or at least, once had been. There were bits of smashed columns and general rubble scattered across the room. The roof was partially collapsed; beyond it, Lightning thought she could see sky. There were no walls to the structure; beyond the broken crystal columns, Lightning could see land, a mosiac of unusual greys, browns and purples, stretching into the distance.

"Light?"

Lightning turned, and could see Fang standing beside her, an expression of supreme confusion on her face. She was holding her forehead, as though she had a massive migraine. She took a step back, and stumbled.

"Fang!" Lightning reached out to steady the other woman, catching Fang's elbow. "Are you alright?"

"I feel like I got stepped on by Titan," Fang replied. "What happened? Where are we?"

"... I don't know," Lightning admitted. And then she paused. "... Fang...?"

"What?"

"Why can I touch your elbow?"

Fang's eyes jolted wide opened, and she stared down at where Lightning was grasping her arm to steady her. A plethora of thoughts seemed to run through Fang's mind. Finally, she said, "I think... we must be in a dream. When... when you dream, I can talk to you, and touch you..."

Lightning thought about this for a moment. Yes, that made sense. When she had blacked out, falling into the cavern, she had dreamt of Fang. And in that dream, she had been able to reach out, and embrace the other woman. However, something felt distinctly different from before. "When did I fall asleep?" Lightning asked. "This... this doesn't feel like I'm dreaming."

Fang considered this. "Maybe... it's not your dream?" She tried.

Lightning's brow crinkled. "Then whose dream is it?"

_'THE MAKER'S. BUNIBERZEI. WELCOME TO THE DOOR OF SOULS.'_

_

* * *

_

**Author's Notes & Omake**

The next part will either be in-game (Part II.2), or go back to pe-game times, (Part I.2). I haven't quite decided yet, but both chapters are essentially finished, so it shouldn't take too long to get up. *sigh* Chapter 5, and we finally get moving on the post-game plot... my apologizes for the delays. I apologize for jumping around in time so much. I keep trying to go forward with plot, but realizing that more backstory would help (like Fang's comment about Sulyya in this one)...

Anyway, please bear with me! And please consider leaving a review, with a big thank you to those of you who've done so! Also, to those of you who are kinda new to the story, consider visiting my profile for an overview of how this fic is supposed to work!

In the meanwhile, please enjoy a couple of omake! Note: the first one was totally fathomed by guubear!

Cheers,

Jen-chan

* * *

**OMAKE 1: Incorporeal Inconveniences**

[VANILLE & ETRO have just left to give LIGHTNING & FANG some privacy.]

FANG: So... now that we're finally alone... wannafoolaround?

LIGHTNING: [Incredulous] What?

FANG: [Fakes innocence] What?

LIGHTNING: [Exasperated] I totally heard you, you know! And we can't! Hello, you're incorporeal? We can't even touch each other, much less fool around!

FANG: Oh. Right. [Pauses] So... wannamasterbatewhileIwatch?

LIGHTNING: [Incredulously] WHAT?

FANG: [Fakes innocence] What?

LIGHTNING: [Exasperated] You are totally incorrigible!

* * *

**OMAKE 2: Incorporeal Opportunities**

LIGHTNING: [Voice soft] This... this entire year... I could feel someone... *with* me. Looking after me. That... That was you, wasn't it?

FANG: [Eyes soften] Yeah, that was me.

LIGHTING: ... [just realizes the implication of her words] ... wait... so... you were with me, the *entire* *time*?

FANG: [Sweatdropping] Uh...

LIGHTNING: ... even when I was in the shower? Or... or...! [turns bright pink. Is too embarrassed to complete the sentence.]

FANG: [Sweatdrops grow even bigger. Rubs the back of her head guiltily] ...

LIGHTNING: Oh *GOD*! I *SO* need to *KILL* you RIGHT NOW!

FANG: [Sweatdrops the size of Cocoon] Light, it's okay! I won't judge you! Your kinks are actually kinda sexy!


	5. Ch 5 I 1 When They were Children

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 5: (I.1) When They Were Children  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By Jen-chan  
January 19 - February 1, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: This part takes place before the game, and will detail some of the events that occurred in Fang & Vanille's childhood which defines their relationship.

* * *

When Vanille was five, and Fang was seven, they were rescued from the ruin and rubble in the wake of Cocoon's most devastating attack on Oerba in memory. Many clans had been destroyed that day, and all of Oerba was in mourning. Two orphans should have slipped through the cracks, but luckily, the young men and women who ran Oerba's orphanage believed that everyone in Oerba was family, and so the two survivors had been brought to them to be cared for.

Oerba Dia Vanille, they were not so worried about. She was young, and she had been alternating between sniffling and bawling, so they knew she would be all right eventually.

Oerba Yun Fang, they did worry for. The lone survivor of the famous hunter's clan was semi-catatonic. She hadn't moved or said a word since being brought to the orphanage. She'd simply sat on her bed a fearsome, smoldering look of rage in her eyes, though she stared at nothing in particular. Her eyes would swivel to glare at whoever would try to speak to her, but she had yet to say an actual word to anyone.

Finally, one of the young women who ran the orphanage, Schala, explained how things worked to Fang. "In this orphanage, we have to look after each other. The older kids look after the younger kids. So, you have to look after Vanille, okay?"

Fang didn't respond. The child simply turned her eyes away from the caregiver after she'd finished speaking. The young women sighed and shook her head as she walked away. "Tombas, you're in charge. Make sure everyone gets to sleep," she ordered the oldest boy (who was ten) in the room. Turning off the lights, she bid the kids, six in total, goodnight.

There was silence in the room for all of a few minutes.

Then Vanille started to cry again.

"Geez, Vanille," Tombas groaned, "be quiet! We need to get to sleep!"

Vanille tried to stifle her crying, but only succeeded to turn her cries into even more pitiful sobs.

"Ugh!" The older boy hopped off of the top level of the three layered bunk. He glared at Fang, who hadn't even gotten under her covers yet. "Hey, Yun Fang, do something. Vanille's your responsibility."

Fang didn't respond. She continued to stare straight ahead.

Tombas reached out and grabbed Fang's arm roughly. Still, she did nothing. He pulled her off of her bed and forcibly dragged her over to Vanille's bunk upon which he tossed her. The sobbing girl had to scoot out of the way to avoid being flattened by the slightly older one.

"Here," Tombas grumped. "Take care of her." Then, he climbed back up onto his bunk to go to sleep.

Fang's glare darkened further as she stared up at the bunk that Tombas had disappeared onto. She continued to glare at the bed for several more minutes, before another sniffle got her attention. Turning her head, she looked at the small girl whose bed she had been deposited on.

Vanille was shaking like a leaf. They continued to stare at each other for an unknown period of time, their silence only punctuated by the occasional sob from the younger girl, which eventually faded to silence. By the time this happened, the younger girl was exhausted. Her eyes drooped, and her body sagged into slumber, eventually falling over into the older girl's lap.

Fang didn't move for a long time after Vanille collapsed into her.

Then, finally, she put a shaking hand onto Vanille's head to touch her soft, feathery, red hair.

There was a lot on young Oerba Yun Fang's mind. Ever since she'd been rescued, she had been thinking, long and hard, about what the elders in her clan would have done had they been in her sandals. Revenge, of course, was the answer, but the question was how. Nothing else mattered; that was why she had ignored everyone's attempt to communicate with her.

But, Fang realized, as she softly pet the young girl's hair, the elders of her clan would probably had also made sure to take care of all those who needed it too - that was also an important value of the clan's.

And so, Fang thought, she'd just have to do both.

* * *

When Vanille was six and Fang was eight, they were asked to draw that they thought their futures would look like during art class at school.

By that age, Fang already learned that it would be enormously troublesome if she drew what she *really* thought her future would look like, so she drew what she thought would have been acceptable to their teacher.

Her picture was quite crude, even by a child's standard, but it wasn't like her heart was into the assignment. She drew a stick person with brown hair standing beside a large scribbled green mess with red crayon spewing from where a spear had been stuck into it.

No one had to know that the green mess was supposed to be Fal'cie Anima. She'd tell the teacher that was a flan or something.

She looked over at Vanille, who, thought two years younger, had definitely put more thought and effort into her picture. Vanille had drawn a house with four people in front of it. One of them had long brown hair and a spear while another, red hair in pigtails. It was pretty easy for Fang to figure out who those two were. The other two had short yellow hair. "Who're they?" Fang asked. The orphanage they lived in together had four other kids, but none of them looked like that.

Vanille shot Fang a put-out look. "Don't look! I'm not done yet!"

Fang grumped, but let the artist get back to work. She looked down at her own picture and put a few more spears into Fal'Cie Anima, adding a pool of red blood around him. But her impatience soon got the best of her, and she looked over at Vanille's picture again. "Come on, are you done yet?"

The younger girl finally put down her crayon and lifted her masterpiece to show the older girl. "That's me and my husband, and that's you and your husband." She said proudly. "This is the house we live in."

Fang laughed. Ah, so that was who the other two were.

Vanille looked over at Fang's picture. "Is that you hunting?" She made an expression of obvious disappointment. "Hey, where's me?"

Fang looked down at her picture. "Huh? Oh. Um... you're not here."

Vanille's frown deepened as her eyes searched the page. "Where am I?"

"Uh..." Fang rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. Crap! She had to think of something quickly, or the younger girl would probably start crying. "You're... uh... at home with our husbands."

The redheaded girl thought about this for a moment, but then shook her head. "But I don't want to be at home. I want to go hunting with you." She grabbed Fang's picture before Fang could stop her, and quickly scribbled a smaller red stick person beside Fang's brown one.

"There," Vanille said, giving the picture back to Fang. "Much better."

Fang looked at the picture. She considered if it really was better now. For some reason, seeing the red stick figure with the smiley face beside the dying Fal'cie Anima... did improve the picture. And made Fang's middle feel warm and fuzzy too.

"Yeah..." Fang admitted begrudgingly, "I guess it is."

* * *

When Vanille was eight, and Fang was ten, the adults who ran the orphanage decided that Fang should formally learn to hunt. She was, by far, the youngest child to start training in the hunt, but she was also, by far, the most skilled child of the six in the orphanage. Even Tombas, who was thirteen, could barely keep up with her.

Vanille had waited until well passed her bed time, and still, Fang had not returned from the hunt.

"Where are they?" She asked one of the adults piteously. "Shouldn't they be back by now?"

"They may have to camp out tonight," had been her answer. "But they'll be back tomorrow."

So Vanille had reluctantly crawled into bed. Of the six children, there were only four tonight. In addition to herself, Shayla, Donda, and Lei were there. Shayla, who was also thirteen (just a couple months younger than Tombas) was the next oldest, so she was in charge that night.

"Do you think she's okay?" Vanille asked the oldest girl.

Shayla shrugged. "Don't know." She had been slightly put out that Fang had gotten to go rather than her.

"Tombas will look after her," Leiz, who was twelve, said. He really looked up to the older boy.

"But Tombas isn't as strong as Fang," Vanille said, still worrying.

The other children couldn't deny this; as far as they could remember, Fang had taken her duty of protecting Vanille very seriously, and when some of the children at school had picked on them for being orphans, Fang had soundly beaten them all, despite being half their size. Not even Tombas had been able to do that.

Vanille didn't sleep all night. She had a deep rooted fear that one day, Fang would go hunting, and just not come back. It was a nightmare that she'd had for as long as she could remember, and she knew that if she did go to sleep, this would be the dream she'd have again.

So, the next morning, she stood by the door with dark, dark circles under her eyes.

When the hunting party finally returned, she cried, "Fang!" and quickly ran out to meet them.

Fang looked different somehow, and yet, still the same. Maybe it had to do with the way she was standing. She seemed, somehow, older. More serious. There was a cut on her cheek. But when she saw Vanille, she gave the younger girl a big smile and a wave, and she looked like the same Fang as always. She held up something small and feathered which used to be alive but now was not. "Vanille! Look! I got a Gremlin!"

The younger girl crashed into the older one, sobbing happily. "You're back! You're back! Don't leave again!"

Fang blinked. "V-Vanille..."

"I worried so much!"

And Fang held the crying girl until she was finished.

* * *

When Vanille was ten and Fang was twelve, Fang decided she was strong enough to go hunting by herself. She was sick and tired of the adults holding her back. She had to get stronger, sooner, and to do that, she had to practice against bigger and badder monsters.

Vanille insisted on going along with Fang. Fang had said no. "You don't even have training with a weapon!" She said.

"I can carry potions!" Vanille insisted. "It's dangerous for you to go alone! If you don't let me go with you, then I'm going to tell Schala."

Realizing that if that happened, then there would be no way for Fang to leave the village without supervision for a long time, Fang had finally relented.

It was a disaster.

They came across a gorgonopsid. Fang told Vanille to hide, which the younger girl did, while she went out to challenge the beast.

Fang didn't stand a chance; fully grown men often lost.

She would have died if Vanille hadn't rushed out from her hiding spot, potions in tow. She raced out to Fang, even as the wolf-like monster had been about to pounce, and pushed Fang out of the way.

Vanille took a vicious swipe from the creature's claw. Her body arched through the air, and then thudded to the ground, unmoving.

"Vanille!" Fang weakly made her way over to the fallen girl, her whole body trembling with the effort it took to lift her bladed lance.

The Gorgonopsid leapt.

Fang saw death looming in front of her.

And then there was a loud 'bang!', and the monster hit the ground, unmoving. It took Fang a moment to realize what happened; someone had shot the creature. Whirling her head over in the direction of the shot, she saw several of the adults of the orphanage.

They took the two girls to Oerba's hospital, where it was pronounced that Fang would be fine. It was lucky that she'd gotten potion timely, but Vanille had lost too much blood, and it did not look good.

Fang's whole body shook with the knowledge that it was her own reckless inability that had caused this to happen to Vanille. She stayed by Vanille's side the entire night, the next day, and the entire next three days after that, holding her hand and praying to the Goddess Etro.

~Please! Your Providence! Let Vanille be okay! Just let Vanille be okay! I'll do anything!~

Then, it was discovered that Donda, who was also twelve, just a couple months older than Fang, had the same blood type as Vanille. The boy was quickly brought in, and they worked to transfer his blood to Vanille.

It had been close, but Vanille finally woke up.

Fang wept tears of relief. It would be the only time that Vanille would ever see the other girl cry. "I'm sorry!" Fang cried, "I'm so sorry! I'll get stronger! I'll get stronger, and I'll protect you, and NOTHING will ever hurt you again! NOTHING!"

Vanille smiled weakly. She went back to sleep after that, but she slept with a content smile of security on her face.

Later on, Fang bumped into Donda, who was feeling dizzy, but otherwise okay. "Donda!" She cried.

Donda looked at Fang. "Hmm? What's up?"

Fang looked at her feet. "T-thank you." She said awkwardly. "If... if you were not here..."

"Oh." Donda laughed kindly, and waved his hand. "Don't worry about it. After all, we are all family, right?" He said. But then, he added teasingly, "still, get a grip! Vanille's your responsibility! You can't let anything happen to her, or Schala will have your head!"

Schala or otherwise, Fang didn't care. She would *never* let anything happen to Vanille again.

* * *

When Vanille was eleven, and Fang was thirteen, the boys of the orphanage were taken away to go to camp for a week by some of the village's men for 'men's lessons', as they did not have their own fathers to teach them such things.

Fang had, at first, been furious at the exclusion, until she discovered that the boys were not going hunting, as she had originally thought. They were simply going camping with some older men to learn some of the skills that men needed to know. Only then had she been mollified.

"What kinds of things do dads have to teach boys that they don't have to teach girls?" Vanille asked innocently.

"I don't know," Shayla said from her top bunk. "Probably the birds and the bees and how to make babies and all that."

Vanille seemed completely startled. "Babies come from bees?"

There was a pregnant pause, followed by the creaking of a bed as Shayla sat up. "Vanille... you don't know where babies come from yet?" She asked. There was no mislabeling the mischief in her voice.

"Shayla, don't," Fang warned. "Vanille's too young." She had only been given 'The Talk' a couple months ago herself, when she had first experienced some unexpected changes in her body, and she *still* wasn't sure she was recovered from the shock.

"I am not!" Vanille insisted. "Tell me!"

So Shayla did. In explicit detail.

"Shayla, will you please shut up?" Fang finally said, after a particularly graphic description. "Vanille isn't old enough to hear this, and you know it. Look at her, you're scaring her."

Indeed, the eleven year old's eyes were bigger than saucers and she had her blankets pulled up over her mouth. "I'm not scared!" Vanille blurted. "I just... I just..." her voice got really tiny.

Fang sighed. "Case in point, Shayla. Shut up."

The oldest girl sniffed icily, but did as requested. "Hmph. See if I ever give YOU advice again, Yun Fang," she grumped.

With the haughty older girl shut up, Fang looked over at Vanille. "Hey, are you going to be alright?" She asked.

Vanille thought about it for a moment, then shook her head.

Fang sighed. "Come here. You can sleep with me tonight."

The redhead eagerly hopped out of her bunk and slipped under Fang's covers.

Fang let Vanille get comfortable.

"... Fang?" Vanille asked, her voice still tiny.

"Hmm?"

"... if... if that's where babies come from... I'm not sure I want them."

The older girl couldn't help but laugh at the younger girl's declaration. "Well, I'm sure that one day you will. But that will be a long time from now, so don't worry about that tonight."

* * *

When Vanille was thirteen and Fang was fifteen, Tombas, who was now eighteen, shocked the entire orphanage when he successfully hunted the palarex antelope, and then gave its prized tongue to Schala, who was more than ten years his senior.

It was a symbol of his desire to marry her.

Schala, unsure of what to do, had not answered her young suitor, and had ran away from the orphanage, much to Tombas's depression.

That night, the five of them discussed the day's occurrence amongst each other. They slept the same way they always had - Fang and Vanille on the lower bunks, Donda and Leiz in the middle, Shayla on the top bunk. Tombas's bunk, adjacent to Shayla's, was empty, as, in his depression, he had not returned to their quarters that night.

"I didn't even realize Tombas felt that way about Schala." Vanille said.

"... I don't think he actually does," Leiz said quietly. "But Tombas is a good guy, and he feels like he owes Schala too much. He doesn't want to see Schala alone."

Fang had been quiet. "But is that right? Should he ask her to marry him, even if he doesn't really love her?"

"Would you have Schala be alone?" Shayla asked. "She's turning thirty one this year. If she doesn't marry soon, she may never have kids."

At this thought, the group became silent, until Vanille quietly agreed with Shayla, "yeah, that... would be horrible."

Fang turned to look at Vanille, surprised to hear such a thing from Vanille, but Vanille was not looking at Fang.

Fang sighed, as she looked away from Vanille again. _See? _She thought to herself, remembering a silly conversation from many moons ago, _told'ja one day you'd want'm._

The next morning though, brought a pleasant surprise to all the residents of the orphanage. It had turned out that Tombas had managed to find Schala, and they had spent the whole night talking.

Tombas had admitted that he actually did love the older woman; he had only told Leiz that he wanted to marry the woman out of duty because he had been embarrassed. After he had admitted the truth, Schala had admitted to her own feelings and that was that. They would be married that month.

That year marked the beginning of many changes.

Tombas no longer slept with them in the orphanage. He and Schala started to build their own house. Leiz, evidently taking a page from Tombas's books, had confessed his own feelings for Shayla. That had made things rather uncomfortable for the five who still lived in the orphanage together, and more often than not, Vanille, Fang and Donda would find excuses to sleep elsewhere.

On those nights, if it was warm enough, Vanille and Fang would camp out on the roof of their school, while Donda would hang out with some of his other friends. It was the first time in their lives that they'd ever had any real semblance of privacy, and they cherished it. They would talk for hours on end. After all, it was a period of great change in their lives, there was often a lot to talk about.

On one of these nights, as Fang and Vanille laid in the reclining chairs on the rooftop, staring up at the stars, Vanille asked, "Fang, do you remember that picture I drew as a kid?"

"... the one with you and me and our husbands living together?" Fang smirked. "Yeah?"

"That's never going to happen, is it?"

A funny feeling flittered across Fang's chest. She looked over at Vanille, and saw that the younger girl was looking earnestly back at her.

Fang sighed, turning away. "... no. Probably not."

Vanille was silent for a moment. And then, she stretched, and looked back up at the sky. "Ah well," she shrugged, her voice becoming its usual chipper tone again. "That's alright. It'll just have to be you and me then. You'll have to mow the lawn though."

Fang laughed heartily. "You know the chances of that happening are equally slim, Vanille."

"Whaddaya mean?"

Now Fang paused. "Vanille, you know what I want to do in my future. And it doesn't involve owning property and kids."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the air, before Vanille replied, her voice tiny, "why not? Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Yeah, it sounds lovely - for you. But me... you know there's stuff I need to do. Those damn vipers just keep coming down, thieving from us. I hear another town got ransacked last winter. Someone's got to stop them."

"Yeah, but why's that got to be you?"

"Because no one else will DO anything about it!" Fang snapped. Then she regretted the strength with which she had expelled her words when she noticed the wounded expression on Vanille's face.

"... sorry," Fang mumbled. "But... that's just how it's gonna be. As soon as I get old enough, I'm taking Fal'Cie Anima's trials."

They didn't talk anymore that night.

But when Vanille sniffled, Fang sighed, and held her close.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES & OMAKE:**

Chapter 5, AKA III.3, will go back to post-game. *sigh* In retrospect, I think I should have just written 3 different stories, rather than jumping back and forth between 3 parts like this. Thanks for putting up with me, guys!

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

**OMAKE 1: Spoiler Alert!**

FANG: [Has been asked to draw 'her future', but all she's put down at this point are doodles of tits and cocks] Hey, Vanille, are you done yet?

VANILLE: [Eagerly drawing away] Don't look! I'm not done yet!

FANG: [Gets bored. Swipes Vanille's picture. Sees a brown stick figure holding a spear and a red stick figure with pigtails. Also sees a pink stick figure holding a gunblade, a blonde stick figure with a bandana, a silver stickfigure with a boomerang and a black stick figure with an afro. The pink stick figure and the brown stick figure are holding hands.] Aaaw, is this our family?

VANILLE: [Shyly] Yeaah. Let me see yours! [Swipes Fang's picture] ... ... ...

FANG: [Sweatdrops] ...

VANILLE: Actually, this explains a lot.

* * *

**OMAKE 2: Hellish upbringing**

[SHAYLA, DONDA, LEIZ, FANG and VANILLE are all in bed, talking about TOMBAS proposing to SCHALA]

VANILLE: I didn't even realize Tombas felt that way about Schala...

FANG: Screw that, I have a much more pressing concern! So I'm supposed to be 15 by now, with Donda being the same age, Leiz being one year older and Shayla and Tombas being 18? How the HELL do you justify sticking a co-ed group of horny teenagers into the same bedroom?

VANILLE: Erm... maybe the readers are supposed to believe that since we all grew up together, we don't have a sexual attraction for each other?

FANG: ... except that Shayla and Leiz supposedly kick us out of our own beds so they can boink later on in the scene?

VANILLE: Well... that'st *sort* of a way of addressing the situation... if you squint...

DONDA: Fang, don't point out the plot holes or this fic may be sucked into the vacuum of the invisible world's chaos.

LEIZ: Yeah, and what are you girls complaining about anyway? It's us GUYS that have it rough! Do you know how hard it is to be a poor teenaged boy sharing the same room while you and Vanille have been acting all 'innocently' snuggly every night for the last decade?


	6. Ch 6 II 2 The Hot Spring Episode

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 6: (II.2) The Hot Springs Episode  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
February 3 - March 2, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: During game. FLight fluff!

* * *

While it was abundantly obvious to all members of the pseudo L'Cie family that teaming Lightning and Fang together culminated in the pinnacle of all monster ass-kickery, the fact of the matter was that it was not often that the two found opportunity to work together.

It just didn't make sense to put the two best fighters in the group together when clearly the other four members needed one of them present to stay out of trouble with Gran Pulse's bloodthirsty wild-life.

It also didn't make sense for the two Pulsian natives to be together either, as their knowledge, out of date after 500 years of crystal sleep, was still better than total ignorance.

Thus, in their daily missions, Lightning often found herself teamed with Vanille and Sazh, while Fang went with Snow and Hope. Lightning understood the logic behind it all, but sometimes, understanding was not enough to keep the exasperation out of her voice when Vanille fell behind, or the anger out of her words when Sazh missed his target.

Despite her frustrations at her teammates' lack of battle prowess however, Lightning soon found herself warming up to Vanille and Sazh. They were both, by nature, generally positive people and earnest in their attempts to pull their own weight (and largely succeeding too, on and off the battlefield, Lightning had to admit, if she had to be fair).

At first, Vanille's friendliness and curiosity annoyed the hell out of the soldier, and Lightning wasn't shy about letting the redhead know about it. The younger woman was down after that, and seeing the redhead's sadness only served to bother Lightning further.

It had taken an offhand comment from Sazh for Lightning to realize why she was so annoyed with the redhead.

"Ahh, it's like when Dajh discovered chocobos. Kids want to know all about the stuff they like."

And Lightning instinctively thought back to when she had first entered the Guardian Corp's training academy, after her mother passed away. At first, when Lightning returned home from class, Serah would attach herself to Lightning's hip and become her shadow until they went to sleep. Their daily lives were so different, it would often take most of the evening for them to share their day's experiences.

One day, tired, cold and wet after a long day training in the rain, Lightning had roughly rebuffed Serah's usual questions about how her day had been in favor of simply passing out for the night. Serah had been wounded, but hadn't said anything. They slowly began to grow apart after that, and it hadn't been until just before the Purge that Lightning had realized that she hadn't conversed with Serah like she'd used to in years, and just how much she missed it.

And Vanille, Lightning realized, was acting exactly like how Serah had been back then - right down to the kicked puppy imitation.

From that point onwards, Lightning couldn't help but see shades of a younger Serah whenever she looked at Vanille, and that helped convinced the soldier to make the extra effort to be kinder to the redhead.

"So... how old are you and Fang?" Lightning asked, one day, not entirely comfortable with the mechanics of striking up and sustaining a casual conversation.

Vanille gave Lightning a surprised look before a megawatt smile lit up her face. "Fang's twenty-one and I'm nineteen!"

Lightning forced a smile to her lips (well, maybe *forced* was too strong a word). "Really? That's quite the coincidence. Serah and I are the same age." She paused. "I... would have thought you younger, and Fang older."

The redhead laughed. "Yeah, we get that a lot. Fang always was in a hurry to grow up."

"Why's that?"

And so, Lightning and Vanille got to know one another, with a certain Pulsian Hunter becoming a reoccurring topic of conversation.

* * *

It was several weeks after landing on Gran Pulse did Lightning and Fang finally find themselves on the same team again, while the rest of their family rested back at their camp. Everyone else was too tired from several days of hard adventuring to continue on that day; that left the two warriors on their own. Hope had attempted to join them, citing their need for a medic, but Lightning held him back.

"We won't take on anything that might require a medic," Lightning promised, just before they set off.

And so, off they went, searching high and low for anything that might be a clue to remove their L'Cie brands, but taking care not to be too reckless. Despite the urgency of their situation, Lightning found the experience quite... enjoyable. It felt... good... to be in the Oerban warrior's sole company, despite the lack of proper perimeters in their mission to give it any true goal or meaning.

Lightning wondered if it was because she just missed fighting with someone possessing as much battle competence as herself. Unbidden, memories of Fang's overheard conversation with Vanille the night they were in the ark came to Lightning's mind, and she realized she was lying to herself if she believed that.

_'What do you think of Lightning?'_ Fang had asked Vanille.

There was no mistakening the thrust of that question. Especially given Vanille's follow up question of _'are you going to court her or just bed her'?_

Not for the first time, Lightning wondered what Fang would have said, had she actually answered Vanille's question seriously. And, again, not for the first time, Lightning wondered what _*she*_ would have preferred Fang to answer.

Contrary to popular belief, Lightning wasn't completely adverse to the thought of romantic entanglements after all. She'd just never really given it much thought, consumed as she had been with the idea of looking after Serah for the last half decade (_but had her little sister really needed *that* much looking after?)._

But now (_assuming that they actually pulled off this miracle_), her baby sister was going to be married (_funny; at the beginning of this whole L'Cie business, she'd been sure that Serah was effectively dead. Now, she was actually contemplating what her baby sister's future with Snow would look like_)... where would that leave her?

Did she really want to be alone for the rest of her life (_again, assuming that that didn't involve turning into a crystal or a monster in the short term_)? Distant though she'd grown from Serah over the last couple of years, Lightning realized that, at least, she'd always had someone to come home to at the end of the day.

Lightning snuck a glance in Fang's direction. Completely out of the blue, the image of the Pulsian hunter wearing an apron and saying _'dinner's ready!'_ came to Lightning's mind's eye, and she blinked.

Where the hell had _*that*_ come from?

Her imagination adjusted itself - now the Pulsian hunter was in her normal clothes with a dead animal skewered on her spear.

_'Dinner's ready'_ indeed; the second scenario was definitely more likely (_and actually, Lightning remembered, had already happened earlier in the week_).

But in any case, Lightning shook her head to clear it of silly thoughts - she was totally getting ahead of herself.

There was, of course, the possibility that the Pulsian hunter was only interested in sex, after all.

From what she'd been able to learn from Vanille, the Pulsian hunter was the object of quite a few folks' desires back home- both men and women, and Fang had not been above accepting a good number of those propositions she received _(at least, from the ladies, anyway. Apparently there were far more greater politics at play when dallying with members of the opposite sex before marriage)_. While Fang had tried her damndest to keep her private life private, she was the source of several scandals in their village.

This, of course, lead Lightning's brain to wonder what it would be like to sleep with the Pulsian hunter; Lightning was, after all, a healthy, red blooded young woman herself. And the prevailing attitude towards sex in Bodhum was, well, considerably more liberal than in Oerba, being a beach-side resort town and all.

The fact that Fang had been flirting heavily enough over the last two weeks to send signals even a rock could pick up, hadn't helped at all...

"What are you thinking about?" Came Fang's voice, unexpectedly tinged with mirth.

"Hmm? What makes you think I was thinking about anything?" Lightning responded, idly glancing at the other woman out of the corner of her eyes, even as they jogged briskly.

"The tips of your ears went red." Fang replied, the grin still in her words.

_~Damn.~ _Lightning frowned, touching an ear reflexively and feeling the heat. Briefly, Lightning wondered if she should let the other woman know that she'd overheard Fang's private conversation with Vanille. It would be nice to knock that smirk off the taller woman's lips. But that might make things... awkward too.

So instead, Lightning sighed. "Nothing in particular," she lied.

Fang smirked. "Right."

Lightning picked up her pace, hoping to come across something that might distract them.

Lady Luck was with her then, for just ahead, she spied a large patch of tough weed-grass, rustling as though something was hidden inside it. Wordlessly, she pointed it out to Fang, and the other woman fell silent, going into battle mode.

Lightning removed her gunblade from its sheath, taking up a defensive position.

The grasses continued to rustle; they were tall and thick enough to hide something at least gorgonspid sized - big enough to be dangerous. The way they rustled suggested that the thing hiding inside it could see them, even though they could not see it.

Lightning looked over at Fang. _'Circle it?' _She thought.

Fang nodded at Lightning's unspoken words, and slowly started to edge to her left, even as Lightning edged right.

They were not able to complete their plan, as the beast within suddenly leapt from the grasses, teeth gnashing and claws swiping.

Lightning leapt back, flipping once, even as she cursed under her breath. When she landed again, she noticed that the thing was now swiping its claws at Fang's direction.

The beast was black, and had a solid white stripe running down its back to the tip of its tail. It was four legged and furry, standing to about waist high on Lightning. It was about as long as a human was tall, with most of that length attributed to its thick, bushy tail.

If not for its size, its hissing and its claw swiping, it would not have seemed to be that dangerous an animal.

Lightning watched as Fang deflected the claw swipe easily and jumped backwards a few feet to get some distance for attacking.

"What is that thing?" Lightning called over to her.

Suddenly, a look of pure horror came onto Fang's face as she managed to get a good look at the beast. "Oh, shi-!" She cried, even as she suddenly turned tail to bolt. "Light, run!"

Lightning's eyes widened. She'd never seen or heard of Fang backing down from a fight before. And the target didn't even look all that menacing. "Why?" Lightning asked, even as she advanced on spooked beast.

"Light, no!" Fang cried, just as the beast turned and pointed its tail in Lightning's direction.

Lightning wasn't quite sure what happened next. A spray of some sort of greenish liquid shot out from under the creature's tail, coating the front of the soldier. The most vile, wretched, disgusting smell of rotten eggs and burning rubber assaulted Lightning's nose. It was ten thousand times worst than the olfactory attack from the decaying garbage of the Vile Peaks.

She couldn't help it; she screamed at the top of her lungs even as her eyes teared up, her head spun and her stomach threatened to empty its contents. Absolutely blinded by the horrific, horrific smell, Lightning started swinging her gunbade wildly in an effort to do _something! anything!_ to make the smell go away.

Her wild attacks found purchase and the creature that had sprayed her gave an agonizing howl as her gunblade plunged into its side. The massive animal careened and stumbled as it surrendered to its death spasms and started to spray its chemical all over the place.

Fang gave a less-than-enthused cry of dismay as the offensive vileness splattered on her sari too.

Lightning was still screaming as she tried desperately to get rid of whatever was smelling so god awful, flinging all sorts of spells at the body of the dead animal. The sky lit up under the litany of scores of fire, thundara, and aero, quickly reducing the body of the animal to a barely recognizable crispy smear on the ground, but doing absolutely jack-all against the smell. Still, Lightning didn't stop hurling the spells until Fang more or less threw herself at the other woman, tackling her down. "Lightning, stop!" She bellowed. "You're only making it worse!"

Finally, Lightning stopped, though she could barely see from all the tears in her eyes. She didn't know how much longer she could stop herself from throwing up. Fang managed to grab Lightning's wrist and pulled her away before the dry heaving began. They bolted as far away from the scene of carnage as they could (Lightning only stopping to pull her gunblade out of the side of the carcass).

"Where are we going?" Lightning coughed as she ran after Fang, her head still spinning. They quickly put distance between themselves and the body of the animal, but the smell was not going away. "What was that thing?"

"That was a skunkenzila!" Fang coughed back at Lightning. "No one ever takes on a skunkenzila because... well, you know why! Why'd'ja think I told you to run? Ghad, you really did it this time, Sunshine! Aaagh, we have to get back to Sulyya Springs, *stat!* We might be able to treat the stench there, but that's only if you get at it within a couple hours of getting sprayed!"

"What happens if we don't treat it in time?"

"Well, unless you had the foresight to pack a wardrobe before we left Cocoon, let's just say we're going to be looking for our L'Cie cure with our bare bums and shaved heads glittering in the sun about two miles downwind from everyone else for the next month!"

Lightning groaned.

They booked it.

* * *

It had taken the group the better part of a day to get from Sulyya Springs to their current location, but Lightning and Fang were much more highly motivated to move this time around, making their way back to the locale at a dead sprint in under two hours. They encountered absolutely no problems from the wildlife; on more than one occasion, Lightning could see families of ceratoraptor and ceratosaurs fleeing amongst disgusted croaks and ribbits from them as they approached, desperate to get away from their stench.

"What are we looking for?" Lightning cried as they weaved their way around various pools of inviting water.

"Look for a thick, soupy, orangy-red one!" Fang replied, even as they splashed their way noisily around and through various springs.

"Like that one?" Lightning pointed ahead.

"YES!" Fang cried triumphantly even as she took a flying leap at the pond. "JUMP!"

The two fully grown women noisily cannonballed into the spring.

"Ugh!" Lighting couldn't help but moan, as she suddenly found herself waist deep in the thick, smelly, orangy-red muck. An involuntary shudder crept up her back as she felt the slop creeping into her boots and up her shorts. It didn't smell nearly as bad as they did, but it certainly wasn't perfume by any stretch of the imagination. "What the hell is this?"

"Do you really want to know?" Fang retorted, answering anyway. "Decomposing fladragora and hybrid flora. It's the only thing known to man that'll take out skunkenzila."

Lightning cringed, wishing she hadn't asked. Then she did a double take. "Wait, what are you doing now?"

Fang had pulled the top of her sari away from her person and was quickly unbuckling her belt to strip the rest of it off. She submerged the article in the muck.

Then, with absolutely no ceremony or warning, she grabbed the bottom of her black crop top and flung that off in one smooth motion, leaving her totally topless. The top quickly joined the sari in the orange goop too.

Lightning's eyes threatened to bulge out of her eye sockets as a massive blush streaked across her cheeks. She stared at Fang, absolutely flabbergasted, until the Pulsian woman made a muck-ball and lobbed it at Lightning's face. "Well, don't just stand there and gawk!" Fang griped, even as Lightning sputtered and tried to clear the crap from her eyes - it stung a little. "Start scrubbing and pray that we made it in time! And don't forget to wash your hair too, less you really want to shave your head?"

If looks could kill, Lightning would have murdered Fang. Instead, the death daggers shooting out of her eyes bounced harmlessly off of Fang's back as the Pulsian woman pulled her own shorts off and started to scrub her clothes, cursing up a blue streak the entire time.

Lightning continued to stare at Fang for a couple more moments. "You're... serious, aren't you?" She said, unable to keep the incredulousness out of her voice.

"What, did you think I was joking?" Fang shot back. "You think I enjoy bathing in rotting tomato?"

Lightning stared at the muck she was wading in, scooping up a handful to examine. It dripped out between her fingers and splotched back into the pool with a 'splut!' sound.

Soon, Lightning's cursing joined Fang's colorful own as the soldier undid the buckles in her own clothing.

* * *

One problem solved, they were soon presented with another. After scrubbing themselves almost raw in the decomposing fladragora ooze, neither they, nor their clothing, stunk of skunkenzila anymore, but that didn't make their clothing any more wearable. So, they hunted around for another spring to wash the flandragora out of their clothes and hair with, eventually finding one.

Fang sighed as she hung her sopping sari up on a pole beside the rest of hers and Lightning's garments. It would take hours for the clothing to dry, maybe even into the next day, considering how late it was already, and Fang was not going to risk staining her favorite _(and only)_ sari irrevocably by trying to rush the process. She looked over at Lightning, who had one arm crossed self consciously in front of her bare breasts, even as her other hand idly played with some of her hair that fell over one shoulder. She kept trying to _(and largely failing to)_ inconspicuously do the 'three-year-old-needs-to-pee' crossing and uncrossing of legs, and there was a keen expression of embarrassment on her face. Her skin was a shade of red that suggested she was either doing a full body blush, or that she'd somehow managed to stain her skin in the flandragora soup.

Not minding her own nakedness one lick, Fang burst out laughing. "Maker above, Lightning, you look absolutely ridiculous! Calm down! It's not like you have anything I don't!"

For the nth time that day, Lightning looked like she wanted to kill Fang, though she did stop the crossing and uncrossing of her legs, and settled for simply crossing both arms in front of her chest.

In truth, Fang couldn't help but appreciate the gorgeous figure Lightning cut in the nude, though she tried her damndest not to make the other woman uncomfortable.

"Well?" Lightning finally managed to say.

"Well what?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Did we make it? Are our clothes going to be okay?" She paused. "Do we need to shave our heads?"

Fang fought down the urge to laugh again. "Well, let me see..." With no preamble, she walked up to the other woman, totally invading her personal space.

Lightning's eyes widened. "What are you-"

Fang sniffed the top of Lightning's head, examining a lock of hair. "Hmm. Nope. We should be okay." She grinned, stepping away from the other woman even as she relished the adorably flustered expression on Lightning's face. "You're actually pretty vain, aren't you?"

Lightning's left eye twitched. "And just what is THAT supposed to mean?"

Now Fang couldn't hold the chuckles in. "Well, look at you, all worried about your hair! And if that belly piercing isn't about vanity, I don't know what is!"

"Says the woman with a massive tattoo on her arm!" Lightning shot back.

Fang chuckled. "Hey, ain't nothing wrong with wanting to look good! I was just surprised was all." She winked at the other woman. "And here I thought I had you figured out."

Lightning cracked a mean smirk back at Fang. "You know nothing about me." She retorted.

"Oh yeah?" Fang laughed. "I know you're a natural pink."

Fang _(probably)_ would have been able to avoid Lightning's backhand to the jaw, but she was too busy thinking about how cute the soldier looked blushing to her toes.

* * *

There was not much to do while they waited for their clothes to dry, so they wandered about Sulyya Springs for a little bit. Though they were careful, they didn't end up encountering any more wildlife; evidently their smelly entrance earlier had prompted everything with legs to flee from the springs while it could.

For Lightning, wandering around outdoors totally buck naked was a completely alien concept, which soon became an oddly liberating one. While she had, at first, been very *very* embarrassed, she soon got over it, and had even begun to feel a strange sort of giddiness in her chest, which she quickly quashed down. It had helped that Fang had, apparently, not a single shred of modesty in her _(quite lovely, Lightning had to admit)_ body; the hunter's lack of concern over their nudity helped the soldier to adjust.

Since it was getting quite late in the evening, they ended up catching fish for dinner from one of the many pools. It was the first time Lightning ate while naked. The experience was... very surreal.

After dinner, they ended up wandering about the springs some more.

"Aww, you have *got* to be kidding me!" Lightning heard Fang exclaim excitedly. "Do you know what this is, Light?"

Lightning looked at what Fang was pointing at. It was a spring, just like any other in Sulyya, save that it seemed to be bubbling. Lightning could feel heat emanating from the water from where she stood. The liquid in this spring was clean and clear. She could see straight through to its smooth pebble lined bottom. "... A spring?"

"Not just any spring!" Fang replied, quickly making her way to the edge of it and crouching down. "This is Lady Luck flashing her magnificent bosom in our faces!"

Lightning raised an eyebrow, declining to comment on Fang's euphemism. "You call getting sprayed by skunkenzila, having to bath in flandragora ooze and walking around totally exposed, a lucky day?"

Fang slid her legs into the water and sighed noisily. "It is if it ends with good company in a hot spring!" She quickly slipped the rest of the way in and positively purred. "Come on! The heat's perfect!"

Cautiously approaching the edge of the pond, Lightning couldn't help but feel amused at the expression of total euphoria on Fang's face. And soon, she understood the cause for the other woman's contentment as she slipped into the hot spring herself.

It was... exquisite. A bubble bath or hot tub had absolutely _*nothing* _on this! There was just something about the heat and the minerals in the water that somehow seemed to needle directly into her muscles and totally empty her body of toxins and stress. Pretty soon, Lightning found herself purring much like how Fang was. They sat in the waters, letting their limbs turn to jelly and their worries leave their minds.

Eventually, Lightning heard Fang sigh. She looked over at the other woman, who was sitting with her back against the edge of the spring, her arms up over the edge of it, half lifting her upper chest out of the water.

"You know," Fang said, a languid, amused tone in her voice. "Believe me when I say these were not the circumstances I had thought I'd be getting you naked under."

_~Aaah, here it comes.~_ Lightning'd been wondering when the flirting would begin. She smiled thinly. "And just what sort of circumstances might those be?"

Fang winked, clearly enjoying the back and forth. "Oh, the usual. Candle light. Stars. Maybe even some romantic music."

Lightning smirked. "... while two kids, a dirty young man and a dirty old man watched?"

Fang laughed, flopping her head back onto the grass. "Hey, whatever floats your boat."

There was silence in the air for a moment, a companion-able silence, and Lightning wasn't sure if it was the heat or the fatigue or the silly thoughts that had been going through her mind earlier, but she said, softly, "... well... they're not here to watch now."

Fang was silent for a moment, and then she flopped her head back upright to look back over at Lightning. The shock in her eyes seemed to say, _'... did you just say what I thought you said?'_

The voice of modesty in the back of Lightning's head cursed and wanted to smack her silly for having let such words slip from her mouth. Lightning's pride however, told her modesty to shut the hell up, and to just play it cool.

In the end, unable to listen to both of the warring voices in her head at the same time, Lightning was left with a surprisingly earnest _'yeah-I-guess-I-did-just-say-that' _expression on her face.

Their eyes accidently locked on each others, and the silence, so companionable before, suddenly bloated with enough sexual tension to explode the minds of a school full of horny teenagers.

They both tried to dispel that tension at once.

"Fang, I-"

"Light, listen-"

And then they both shut up again, waiting for the other to speak, causing the awkwardness in the air to multiply exponentially.

Eventually, Fang chuckled, rubbing her face with a hand, even as she shook her head ruefully. That laughter finally dispelled the tension. "Wow. That was smooth, wasn't it? Let's try that again, and if you don't let anyone know how dorky that was, neither will I."

Lightning rolled her eyes, grinning. "Worried about your rep, Fang? From what Vanille tells me, you're usually more debonair than that."

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you two've been talkin' about me, have you?"

"Well, there's only so much you can talk about weather and beasties."

"Well that's hardly fair," now Fang was grinning. "Level the playing field, will ya? Snow 'n Hope know next to nothing about you." She leaned forward, a playful sparkle in her eye. "Tell me about yourself, Sergeant Farron."

The sparkle in Fang's eyes was not lost on Lightning. She gave Fang a coy look (an expression she wasn't aware she was actually capable of). "Well... what do you want to know?"

"Hmmm..." Fang tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Boyfriend?"

Lightning couldn't help but feel a sardonic smile twitch its way to her lips, not at all surprised at where the conversation was going towards. It was ground that Vanille had tried to cover before too, though Lightning had been evasive. But, not feeling the need for evasion now, she simply shook her head in the negative.

"Girlfriend?"

That glint in Fang's eyes *definitely* came from hopefulness.

Lightning considered her answer for a moment, enjoying the expression of rapt curiosity on Fang's face. She could feel the tips of her ears growing warm from the attention. Finally, she sighed and decided to just be truthful. "... it's been a long time."

"O-ho!" Fang laughed. "Seriously? I wouldn't have thought that of you!"

"What? Did you think I was a blushing virgin or something?" Lightning raised an eyebrow, non-pussed.

"Well, maybe not a _*blushing*_ one," Fang grinned. "But I'd have thought you'd give me some sort of a 'I don't have time for relationships' line, or something."

"Well, I don't," Lightning replied evenly. "Not anymore, anyway. The Guardian Corps does keeps me pretty busy."

"Ah, that sounds more like the Lightning Farron I know," Fang laughed. "Why'd you join the army in the first place?"

At this, an uncomfortable expression came onto Lightning's face. Their conversation had obviously been on lighter topics; she didn't really want to share anything too heavy, but there was really no way to answer the Pulsian's question and avoid that. "Dad died when I was a kid. Mom went too when I was fifteen. I had to support Serah and I somehow, and the Corps take care of their own."

"... I'm sorry." The apology in Fang's voice was sincere.

Lightning sighed, and shrugged. "It was a long time ago. It's fine."

"... my parents went when I was seven."

Lightning looked over at the other woman, and could see a serious look on Fang's features. "... how did they go?" Lightning asked quietly. She already knew the gist of it, from Vanille, but she wanted to hear it from Fang.

"Same way a lot of kids' parents went, those days." Fang replied. "Fighting vipers. Losing." She sighed. The sigh had a very _'let's-not-talk-about-that-now'_ sort of feel to it.

Lightning didn't press the issue.

Instead, they continued to talk about other things, getting to know each other.

Fang told Lightning about her childhood, about the orphanage, and the others that she and Vanille had grown up with - Donda, Leiz, Shayla and Tombas. She told Lightning about the time Vanille almost died because of Fang's recklessness with the gorgonspid, and how they used to sleep on the roof of their school to give some of the others some privacy.

She told Lightning about how much trouble she and Vanille used to get into, all the boys that would chase them around, and some of her more creative ways of rebuffing them.

She told Lightning about how Vanille used to be engaged, to Donda, and the pressures she herself had faced to carry on her own bloodline.

Lightning was amazed by some of the peculiarities of Oerban society, for example, that folks would get married at so young an age. There were so many things so radically different from Cocoon's customs - _'how so', Fang would ask_ - and then Lightning would have to explain.

Fang didn't tell Lightning everything, and they both consciously stayed away from the heavier topics, sure to blow the mood (like the effects of the war of Transgression, friends going Cie'th, etc). Some of the bits, Lightning already knew from Vanille, but the pink haired woman was still glad to hear the stories from Fang herself.

In return, Lightning told Fang about herself. She wasn't anywhere near as forthcoming with personal information as she had been about general Cocoonian customs, but with a bit of coaxing from the Pulsian Hunter, she told Fang about how close she and Serah had been as children, and which sports she used to play as a child _('Figure skating?' Fang had asked. 'What's that?')_. She told Fang about her first mission with the Guardian Corps, and what an unmitigated disaster that had been. She told Fang about their house, and how she hadn't had the time to clean it in forever. When Fang wouldn't stop needling her about it, she even told her a little bit about her first girlfriend _(First year in high school. Her locker was stuffed to the gills with love letters for weeks from a horde of admirers. She thought she'd pick one of them to keep the others at bay, but that ended up backfiring spectacularly)._

They lost track of how long they'd been talking for, and it wasn't until Lightning realized that she felt a bit light headed and dizzy, that Fang had asked, "hey, how long have we been in here for anyway?"

"I have no idea," Lightning confessed. It was a strange sensation - she felt almost... tipsy... from sitting in the hot water for so long. Looking down at her hand, she realized that her fingers were beyond pruned, and that her skin was several shades darker than her hair. The fuzziness in Lightning's mind almost reminded her of drinking a little too much. "... how long can we stay in one of these things?"

Fang sighed. "If we've been in a spring long enough to ask ourselves that question, then we should probably get out," she said reluctantly. But as she got up to do so, she flashed Lightning a grin. "Well, thank you very much for the date, Sergeant Farron. I had a lovely time." She extended her hand to help Lightning up.

Lightning's lips twitched into a smile as she accepted Fang's hand. "This was a date?"

"Sure, why not?" Fang's laughter was light. "We went hunting, even though _*that*_ part was a bit of a disaster, then we ate and relaxed and got to know each other, and hey, we even got to see each other naked." She laughed again. "Wow, maybe this was actually the second date, yeah?"

Lightning couldn't help but laugh too. "How easy do you think I am? It's at least the third or fourth."

Fang raised her eyebrow at the challenge. "Honey," she grinned cockily, "I am Oerba Yun Fang. You would've been mine by the end of the second date."

"Oh, how you exaggerate," Lightning rolled her eyes. "It's the end of the first, and you haven't even been able to kiss me yet!"

Fang smirked, giving Lightning a hooded look. Her eyes drifted down and Lightning realized that the hunter still had a grip on her hand. With no further warning, Lightning suddenly found herself being pulled off balance.

Between the sudden movement and her head still spinning from the heat in the hot spring, Lightning suddenly found herself being dipped backwards, held only by the strength in Fang's arms. The other woman's face was dangerously close to her own, and her eyes were sparkling with mischievous intent.

"Say that again?" Fang teased.

But Lightning found herself unable to speak. She could only stare up at Fang with wide eyes.

All of a sudden, all brevity fled the scene. Lightning became acutely aware of several things - the precariousness of her position, the pounding of her heart in her ears, and the marvellousness of Fang's toned body so close to her own.

At the same time, Fang could feel the sudden tension in Lightning's body, and realized she was crossing a line. Her own eyes widened.

They both froze, not quite sure what to do next.

A little ways from the hot spring, an errant cricket gave a single, curious chirp.

"I can let you go." Fang offered, not moving.

"Don't." Lightning replied, also not moving.

"What?" Fang blinked, but otherwise still not moving.

And then Lightning brought her arms up to place her hands over Fang's shoulders, sliding them up over Fang's collar bone, before locking her fingers together behind Fang's neck. She pulled herself upwards to capture Fang's lips...

... and their would-be kiss was interrupted by a loud cry of "Oh! *There* you two are! We've been looking all over for you!"

"Gah-blubblub!" Lightning cried out and ended up swallowing a lung full of water when Fang gave a start of surprise and dropped her into the water.

* * *

The rest of the evening proceeded like a clockwork comedy of errors.

Their pseudo L'Cie family, worried for their safety when they hadn't returned, had set out to look for them and found the remains of the skunkenzila. From that, Vanille had been able to deduced that this meant they'd come back to Sulyya. Finding their clothes hanging out to dry had confirmed this.

Upon stumbling upon the pair in the hot spring, Vanille's eyes had instantly lit up and, with absolutely no regard for the presence of their male companions, or the daggers her female companions were lobbing at her with their eyes, promptly stripped herself of her clothing to join the other two women in the water.

It wasn't until after she'd gotten in the water, took one look at Fang, and then one look at Lightning (rather waterlogged at the moment), did the math add up in her head and she groaned. _'Come on, guys! It's a friggin' *hot spring!* I haven't been in one of these in forever! Don't kick me out now!'_

Though Fang had been ready to do just that, Lightning had stopped her, and allowed Vanille to stay.

Fang had given a silent look Lightning, whom pointedly refused to meet the hunter's eyes. Instead, Lightning chose that moment to leave, citing that she'd been in the water too long already, and quickly stalked passed the menfolk with such a look of such pissed-off-ness in her eyes that not one of them dared to make a comment about her nakedness (although Snow actually did turn to Sazh afterwards and whisper, _'huh... so *that's* where her brand is.'_).

This left Fang and Vanille in the water, as the men folk also left them their privacy (not following after Lightning). Fang didn't particularly want to stay in the water, as she'd been in it just as long as Lightning had been, but wasn't about to leave Vanille by herself, so she stayed at the edge of the pool while Vanille soaked.

Vanille had known better than to ask Fang for any details (realizing she had been _*this close*_ to really pissing off her oldest friend).

When that was done, and the men returned, Sazh had asked what was so special about taking a bath. Vanille then explained in excited detail all the fabulous virtues of hot springs. The menfolk, clearly impressed, had wanted to try the water out too, so Fang and Vanille let them do that.

They didn't see a lick of Lightning until the men were long done with their own soak. By that time, it was well into the night, so they turned in, going about their usual guard shifts.

This didn't leave Fang with the chance to talk to Lightning at all during the rest of the night, and it bothered her.

Now that they were out of the heat, back in their clothes, and with the rest of the group, the soldier was back to acting completely normal. Any hints of the playful, sensual woman from the water was hidden neatly back under Lightning's normal mask of detached neutrality.

It was enough to eat at Fang's mind for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Fang woke up extra early to have a word with Lightning, who had taken the last guard shift of the night.

Finding the other woman, Fang waved her a greeting. "Good morning, Sunshine." Lightning simply nodded her head in acknowledgement, though Fang could tell that more was going through the soldier's head than she was letting on (her ears were turning red again).

_~Damn,~ _Fang thought. She was hoping that after opening up to each other yesterday, the soldier would have retained some of her friendliness.

"I was hoping to talk to you about yesterday." Fang said.

A barely discernable tick appeared around the edge of Lightning's left eye. "If you were wanting to pick up where we left off, I'm afraid the moment's passed." She finally said, her voice neutral.

Fang frowned, wishing the other woman would give her more to work with. "Actually, Listen, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sorry about Vanille's craptacular timing, but the truth of the matter is... I'm actually a little glad."

Lightning raised an eyebrow, but otherwise, didn't react, simply waiting for Fang to continue.

The hunter sighed. _Honestly, this was like pulling teeth._ "Alright, I'm just going to say it. I love teasing you, Light. You're hilarious fun to poke at. But I know I can go overboard with it, and I know I did yesterday. I'm sorry. But you can't deny that there is something between us. Something good. From that first fight in Palumpolum onwards, I could tell, and I could tell that you could tell too. What that something is, I don't exactly know, but, I'd like to find out, and I'm thinking that you wouldn't mind to either. If I'm wrong, then so be it, I won't go there again. There. I've said my piece. I don't want there to be awkwardness between us. Are we good?"

Lightning was silent.

Fang couldn't help but feel like a complete ass.

Then, suddenly, Lighting reached out, grabbed the front of Fang's sari, and pulled Fang towards her.

Their lips met.

Fang's mind went totally blank for a second, before she closed her eyes and eagerly kissed the other woman back, moving her hands behind Lighting's head to keep her close.

There was nothing else of importance in the world in that moment, nothing at all, except for Lightning's mouth on Fang's lips and her hands cupping her cheeks, and *her* hands digging into *her* hair and the warmth that was pouring forth from each of them into the other. That was all there was in the world, and that was more than enough for the both of them.

Eventually, they parted.

And Lightning smiled at Fang. "Yeah. We're good."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES & OMAKE

*cries and headdesks* Comedy is HARD! ;_; I have lost track of the number of times I've re-written this chapter. The amount of writing I've tossed out is probably more than the length of this chapter alone!

My apologies if Lightning seems a little OOC in this chapter... some of the previous drafts of this version had her REALLY OOC, but I think I've corrected most of it - please let me know if I've missed anything!

Thank you for reading! Hope you liked it! The next part will go back to pre-game times, and should be the last one of those!

Cheers,

Jen-chan

* * *

OMAKE 1: If It Had Been Anyone Else Instead

[FANG is holding LIGHTING in the classic Hollywood kiss pose. They stare at each other with open desire in their eyes.]

FANG: ...

LIGHTING: ...

[They move in to kiss each other.]

SNOW: There you two are! We've been looking all over for-!

[A hail of bullets rips into his chest, staggering him. When that doesn't immediately kill him, a bladed Lance is thrown into his gut, while a gunblade is lodged into his forehead]

SNOW: [Dies]

SAZH: ... [Looks over at a quivering VANILLE] Next time we have to go looking for those two, maybe you should take point.

VANILLE: [Still quivering] No way!

* * *

OMAKE 2: Strawberry Blondes Have More Fun

FANG: And here I thought I had you figured out.

LIGHTNING: You know nothing about me.

FANG: Oh yeah? I know you're a natural pink-! [looks down] uh... uh huh huh... [Laughs goofily]

LIGHTNING: [Self conscious] What?

FANG: ... Nothing. I just... [Hastily tries to stop the blood from trickling out of her nostrils] ... didn't think you favored Brazilian style...

* * *

OMAKE 3: Tell-tale Signs

[LIGHTNING and FANG finally are able to team together, but LIGHTING can't stop thinking dirty thoughts about FANG]

FANG: What are you thinking about?

LIGHTNING: Hmm? What makes you think I was thinking about anything?

FANG: The tips of your ears went red.

LIGHTNING: ... damn. [Caught red handed]

FANG: [Grinning] So? What were you thinking about that's got you so hot and bothered?

LIGHTNING: If you must know... handcuffs, ball gags, stilettos and hot wax.

FANG: ... [Eyes get really big] ... seriously?

LIGHTNING: ... why? Does that bother you?

FANG: ...

LIGHTNING: ... [slightly disappointed]


	7. Ch 7 I 2 When They were Adolescents

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 7: (I.2) When They were Adolescents  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By Jen-chan  
February 1 - February 10, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Pre-game. Details an event that occurred in Fang & Vanille's older childhood which defines their relationship.

Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

When Vanille was fourteen and Fang was sixteen, the boys would just *not* *stop* *bothering* *them*.

By then, they had moved out of the orphanage. It had been a tough and hard fought battle for Fang to declare her independence. At sixteen, she was just a little shy of official adulthood, even though her success at the hunt should have allowed her to support herself, just barely.

It was not until she had loudly proclaimed to Schala and Tombas that if she was old enough to take Fal'cie Anima's trials to become L'Cie, then she was old enough to live the rest of her days as she saw fit, that the orphanage administrators finally had a change in heart.

And so, reluctantly, they let Fang and Vanille move out of the orphanage. It was a little bit of a stretch for them to get their own place. They didn't quite have enough to furnish their new home, so they ended up taking the old bunk beds from the orphanage (they were getting tossed out anyway). The place was small and cramped and slightly run down, but it was hers and Vanille's and they loved it.

In theory, the home was Fang's, while Vanille technically was still a child of the orphanage. In practice, however, Vanille lived with Fang. Their caregivers, long familiar with their closeness, had seen the futility of trying to separate them, and so looked the other way, so long as they stayed out of trouble.

This had been, unsurprisingly, somewhat difficult, considering the amount of attention they were suddenly getting from people.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that between the both of them, they grew almost eleven inches in height, six inches in hip and seven in bust.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the boys were finally starting to grow up, and were now viewing Fang as the exotic beauty she'd always been, rather than the hated rival who always managed to show them up. Vanille's sunny dependency, once viewed as an annoyance, was now seen as ego-boasting charm; she could really make a fella feel *good* about himself.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that Fang's newfound adulthood freedoms finally gave her the space to really come into her own. It became clear to just about everyone in the village not blind, deaf and dumb that Fang was going to be the best warrior of her generation, and that she was meant to go places not meant for normal fates. Many bet that she would attempt Fal'cie Anima's trials before the year was out. Without the constant adult badgering to fit her into more traditional women's roles, Fang was largely able to do what she wanted and mellowed out significantly, becoming happier, friendlier, if not downright flirty, with her peers.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Fang, in her attempt to discourage some suitors, had boasted that she wouldn't even *consider* dating anyone who wasn't at least her equal on the hunt and in combat. Unfortunately, rather than scaring the boys away (as this tactic once used to), now they would challenge her as she walked down the street! Though Fang pretended to be annoyed with these challenges, secretly, she enjoyed them, as it allowed her to sharpen her battle prowess. Sometimes, she would openly flirt to *get* someone interested enough to challenge her!

It may have been any number of these factors, but the fact that adolescence hormonal imbalance practically drove Vanille certifiably insane with bubbly, bodily touchiness *definitely* had something to do with their popularity.

Some days, Fang would come home from hunting and find Vanille and a few gal pals surrounded by a crowd of young men, all angling to take them to the lake, or on a walk, or down to the market.

"Alright lads, try your luck tomorrow. I'm hungry enough to eat the arse end of a low flying chocobo, so get yourselves outta my house, yeah?" Fang said, one day, booting the small party out of her home. There were some disappointed groans, but eventually everyone left with a smattering of 'cheers' and 'see you tomorrow'.

Vanille leaned out the door, hanging onto the door frame as she waved to her friends, practically singing out, "bye-bye!" before coming back inside and giving Fang a hug. "Fang! Fang! Guess what happened today!" She said excitedly, even as she went to grab some plates for dinner as well as the pot of leftovers from the fridge.

"Hmm... Karl asked you to go fishing, Nabaz let you copy from his homework, and Donda bought you something?" Fang sighed. It was complicated juggling. A girl had to be friendly enough to sustain male interest enough for one of them to marry her, but too friendly, and she'd never be married, and Fang didn't wish that on anyone, much less Vanille.

"Close! But it was Donda who let me copy from his notes and Nabaz bought me lunch!" Vanille grinned triumphantly.

Fang laughed, shaking her head. "Damn, Vanille. I have no idea how you manage to keep them all straight in your head."

"Well, sometimes, I forget too!" The red-headed girl admitted, though she sounded far too cheerful to be apologetic. She giggled as she served dinner. "I kissed Volker on the cheek today to thank him for the flowers last week, but it turns out the flowers were from Nabaz! He was so angry with me, I had to kiss him on both cheeks!"

Fang's eyes narrowed. "Next time Nabaz gets angry at you for anything, you tell him to come to me."

Vanille winced. Maybe she shouldn't have told that story; Nabaz was a sweet guy who didn't deserve what Fang would put him through. She quickly changed the topic of conversation to something else.

Besides, there was something that she had been wanting to bring up.

"So... uh, say! You know those mini donuts we had at the fair grounds yesterday? Weren't they delicious?"

"Hmph? Oh, yeah!" Fang sighed. "Goddess, I wish that vendor would come by more often. Once every 10 years is just too bloody long."

"Wanna go get some more tomorrow?"

Fang considered this, and nodded.

They said a prayer, and started to eat their meal.

The Festival of Anima was the largest celebration in Oerba. It only happened once every 10 years, and would last for a full month. During the festival, the Temple of Fal'Cie Anima would open to the general public to pay their respects to enshrined L'Cie crystals, some of the greatest heroes in Oerba's history. Offerings of food and clothing would be left at the Temple, but also shared with all the villagers.

The festival was famous throughout all of Gran Pulse, and for that month, the population of Oerba would dramatically swell to three or four times its normal size with a flood of visitors and merchants.

Certain days during the month had special values which were celebrated on the fair grounds; for example, the first night celebrated 'bravery', while the last night celebrated 'family'.

Tomorrow night however, was celebrating 'lovers'. While one did not have to be in a relationship to celebrate (families still went out with one another to enjoy the festivities, and so did friends), one could be sure that the merchant and vendor booths would be geared towards romantic wares.

"So what time to you want to go tomorrow?" Fang asked between spoonfuls.

Vanille winced internally. Damn! She was hoping she'd be able to structure the conversation to flow a bit more in her favor, but Fang had beaten her to the punch. Well, it was now or never. Keeping her energy up, and trying to phrase the question as casually as possible, Vanille was careful not to even look at Fang as she said, "actually, Fang, could you take Trella to the festival tomorrow?"

Fang blinked, mouth still open with a spoon full of food halfway to her teeth. "Trella the Tramp?"

"Fang, don't call her that. It's mean, and she's my friend." Vanille complained, annoyed, even as she chewed on her own food.

"Well it's her own damn fault." Fang shrugged, snorting. "If she didn't want the reputation, then maybe she shouldn't throw herself at men so often." Fang paused. "You know, Vanille, maybe you shouldn't hang out with her so much. You don't want that sort of name following you around either."

Vanille sighed; this was a familiar conversation. "Don't worry, Fang, I'm not totally brain dead! I wouldn't give it up just like that! Besides, everyone knows they'll have to get through you to get to me; they don't even try!" She rolled her eyes. Vanille very well knew what her reputation was with the boys: look but don't touch.

"Yeah? Well what about that bunch that was here earlier?" Fang challenged.

Vanille coughed. "Never mind that, thaaaat's besides the point. The point is..."

Here, Vanille's voice quieted. "The point it, Trella's dad is marrying her off next month to some guy in Paddra whom she's never met before. This is going to be one of her last chances to have fun, but they're not letting her go to the festival unless it's strictly in the company of her gal pals. But Trella... Trella doesn't have many gal pals anymore, you know? Everyone else's parents are telling them to stay away from her, on account of her being 'a bad influence' and all. But she's not, Fang, you've met her. You liked her! You said she was fun!"

Fang sighed, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms. "Yeah, a little bit *too* fun, Vanille. She was all over those boys you keep dragging around here and me too!"

Vanille giggled, evidently remembering the episode. "Hey! I don't remember you discouraging her!"

The hunter grinned rakishly, shrugging helplessly. "Alright, alright, fine fine. I'll do it." She smirked. "... at least she won't be boring."

"Great!" Vanille piped. Excellent! Phase one, according to plan! "Show her a good time, yeah? It's her last date, ever."

Fang waved Vanille off. "Yeah, yeah. I know how to have a good time." She paused as something evidently came to mind. "Hey, wait a minute, what about you? Why can't you go with her?"

Vanille winced. Busted. "Well... I kinda... told Nabaz I'd go with him already. You know, to apologize for the mix-up about the flowers. Besides, you know how this festival's geared towards couples..."

Fang gave a short snort of laughter. "Ah. So that's it! You want to keep *ME* preoccupied so that *YOU* can go mess around!"

Vanille squirmed. Time to whip out the big guns. Concentrating, she closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and turned the biggest, roundest, watery-est, most puppy-est-doggy-est eyes in all of Gran Pulse on Fang. "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

The older girl didn't stand a chance.

* * *

The next day, Fang and Vanille went to pick up Vanille's friend Trella before they headed down to the festival grounds. There, Nabaz met Vanille and promptly took off, but not before Fang managed to pull the boy aside for a few words.

"Hi! Nabaz, is it?" Fang smiled, offering her hand. "I'm Fang."

"Aaah, Hi Fang," Nabaz took the hand, shaking it firmly. "Vanille's told me all about you! I'm NabAAAH!"

"Fang, stop it!" Vanille cried, slapping at Fang's grip, which was currently crushing Nabaz's fingers into a pulpy mess.

Fang's smile only grew toothier, before she released the boy's digits. "Respect Vanille and I won't be forced to do that to any other parts of your body, okay?"

"Y-yes ma'am!" The boy squeaked.

"Good. Now go have fun and bring Vanille home at a decent hour."

Vanille grabbed the boy's arm, gave Fang a dirty look over her shoulder, and wandered off with the boy.

Fang heard a soft chuckling at her side, and looked over at Vanille's friend. She grinned. "Ya see, Trella. THAT'S what your father *should* have been doing."

The chuckling stopped and Trella shot her a pained look. "Ha ha, funny. Look, I know I made my own bed, and I have to lie in it. I really appreciate you and Vanille bailing me out for the night, but if you're just going to lecture me the entire time, then you should just take me home right now."

Fang quirked an eyebrow. She hadn't expected that. The last few times she had come in contact with the other girl, she had been significantly... shallower. "Err... is something wrong, Trella?"

The other girl sighed. "No. Yes. I don't know. Aaargh, I don't want to think about it." She rubbed her face and then pasted on an obviously fake smile. "Look, don't worry about me, Yun Fang. Let's just have fun, alright? You're gonna be the last date I'm ever gonna have, so let's make it a good one." The smile morphed into a sultry grin, a few shades more sincere than the smile had been. "Or do you know how to show a girl a good time?"

"Oh, you'll get your good time, Trella." Fang winked. She'd promised Vanille she would after all. She offered her hand to the other girl, who's grin widened again as she accepted it.

So fun was had!

They went through the market place, taking the time to shop through every tent. One of the last ones they went into was a jewelry shop. They found some earrings which Trella liked, so Fang purchased them for her. Trella also found a necklace made of white bone and beads, but declined when Fang offered to get that for her too.

"I want to buy this for Vanille as a thank you present," she explained.

"Thank you for what?" Fang asked.

"Getting me a date with you." Trella winked.

Fang grinned.

They went to a material supplier. Fang browsed the merchandise, ready to settle on the gargantuan claw, but the other girl shook her head. "If you're wanting to boast EXP, go with the sturdy bone. It's more bang for your buck."

Fang considered this for a moment, and realized that the other girl was right.

At some point in time, they went up to Fal'Cie Anima's temple to give thanks for the patron Fal'Cie's protection - well, the younger girl did anyway. Fang didn't particularly feel that she owed the Fal'Cie thanks for jack, but she respected the sacrifices of the successful L'Cie. As they walked among the enshrined L'Cie crystal, Trella reached out and put a hand on one of them.

Fang looked over at the crystal Trella was touching, recognizing him. She'd known him. His name was Samanth, one of the most respected hunters in Oerba.

"What do you think crystal sleep is like?" Trella asked.

Fang shrugged. "Not sure. No one's woken up to talk about it in the last fifty years, yeah?"

Trella smiled, sadly. "Tell me when you know?" Evidently, she knew of the older girl's future plans.

Fang laughed. "Sure."

They left the temple and went back to the fair grounds, bumping into Vanille and Nabaz in the food gallery. They spent some time sharing dinner with them at some of the food stalls, gorging on a plethora of unhealthy snacks and drinks almost to the point of illness, laughing all the while, before splitting up again.

There were various game stalls on the fair ground featuring skill testing contests. It didn't take Fang very long to win a stuffed toy, which she gave to Trella.

Soon it was approaching midnight, and most folks had hunkered down to watch the fireworks. The place was packed, and they couldn't quite find a spot.

Trella pulled at Fang's hand. "You know what, Fang? I don't really want to see the fireworks. Can't we just... I dunno, go somewhere to talk?"

Fang shrugged. "Alright, sure." So they went down by the riverbank, sitting on the grass, chatting about nothing of consequence. At this time, if felt like they had the river to themselves, as everyone else was on the other side of town, awaiting the once-a-decade fireworks.

Fang stared up at this end of the sky, sitting with her legs stretched out in front of her, crossed at the ankle, resting on her elbows. Though there were no pyrotechnics on this side of the village, the full moon and billion stars still provided more than adequate light. The only thing that was really spoiling the view was that damned viper's nest, hanging ominously just beneath the stars.

"Are you sure you're okay being here, rather than at the fireworks?" Fang asked. "Isn't there something about true love and blah blah if you see'm with your sweetheart or something?"

Trella shrugged. "Well, shouldn't make a difference then. It's not like either of us are with our sweethearts now, are we?"

"Ouch! Shot down!" Fang pretended to be wounded, pressing her hand to her chest to cover an imaginary wound.

The other girl laughed for a little bit... and then her laughter gently turned into soft sobs.

Fang sighed. Figuring that this was bound to happen sometime during the evening, she sat up a little and shifted her weight onto her other hand to free up an arm. She rubbed the other girl's back with her free hand comfortingly, then pulled her in close. She let the girl cry into her shoulder, while she rested her chin on the top of Trella's head.

Eventually, the sobs disappeared, and Trella wiped the last traces of tears from her eyes. "Sorry about that, Fang. I... I don't know what came over me."

"Don't worry about it. Just let it out, and you'll feel better. Always makes Vanille feel better."

The other girl smiled sadly. "Do you always comfort Vanille like this?"

Fang's lips quirked upwards. "Oh yeah. She's such a cry baby; gets hurt so easily. But, good thing is, she heals fast too. It's like she's brand new again after a good cry and a hug."

"... has she ever needed... more comfort than this?"

Fang paused. There was a strange lilt in Trella's soft voice. "... how do you mean?"

The younger girl removed herself from Fang's one-armed embrace so she could look the older one in the eyes.

No words passed between them.

And then the younger girl closed her eyes, and gently pushed her lips against Fang's.

The action didn't catch the hunter by surprise; she had see it coming several hours away, and decided not to be a prick about it.

The kiss started off gentle at first, but it didn't stay that way for long; the other girl wasn't a half-bad kisser, Fang thought to herself. Soon, she found herself being straddled by the other girl. Fang's own arms were planted on the ground, a little ways behind her to support the weight of them both, but Trella's hands were free to roam all over, which they wasted no time to do. She had pulled the top of Fang's sari off her shoulder and was now working her fingers under the bottom edge of Fang's cropped tank top.

That was a little bit of a surprise. Fang casually pulled her face away from the other girl for a moment, quirking an eyebrow. "In a bit of a hurry, aren't we?"

The other girl looked back at her with a lost expression on her face. "Don't you like it?"

Fang chuckled. "It's quite lovely," she assured the other girl, "but you're getting married and I'm-"

"Vanille said it would be okay." Trella interrupted, leaning back down to take Fang's lips once more.

That had not been the right thing to say to soothe the hunter.

Any traces of mirth evaporated from Fang's voice. "Excuse me?"

"Vanille-"

Fang sat up, forcing Trella back.

There was an unreadable expression on her face. "... did Vanille put you up to this?" Fang asked quietly.

Trella didn't answer. She tried to look away, but Fang grabbed her chin and turned her back. There was no escaping Fang's cool, calm jade inquisition.

"I asked, 'did Vanille put you up to this.'" Fang repeated smoothly.

The other girl bit her lip. "... Vanille wants you to be happy, Fang. She wants you to experience all that life has to offer, even the things that she can't give you."

Fang quirked her eyebrow again, unamused.

It was in that moment that Trella remembered that Fang was *the* fiercest warrior of their generation. A shiver transverse down her spine.

"Aaah, look, Yun Fang. I know you'd never try to be with Vanille the way you'd want to. You care too much about her future to let her throw it away on you. But me? I don't have a future. You can do what you want with me." Trella's lips trembled, and she closed her eyes.

"I've been with a lot of losers, out of desperation. I didn't even like them. I was just... trying to run away from this arranged marriage. But for once in my life, just once, I want to be with someone I actually care about, someone I *want* to be with."

Clenching her fists, the other girl opened her eyes, and looked Fang in the eyes. "Please, Yun Fang. Can't you just... pretend?"

Fang stared at the shorter girl, silent, for a long time. And then she sighed, getting up. Trella had to scramble to avoid being up-ended onto the grass.

"Sorry Trella," Fang said, not sounding particularly sorry at all, though she did extend a hand down to help the other girl to her feet. "I feel for you, I do. And I can appreciate what you think you're trying to do for me. But ultimately, I'm not going to be your big experimental fling. Let's get you home."

* * *

Fang was very glad that Vanille's date did not decide to follow her home that night; the boy's standing raised a small step on her scale. The younger girl was humming happily to herself as she came in through the door. "Oh!" She gasped, when she noticed Fang sitting by the window, glaring at her. "You're, uh, home early, Fang. Shouldn't you still be... enjoying Trella's company?"

The dark expression on Fang's face answered Vanille's question for her.

Wordlessly, the older girl stood up and advanced on the younger one, raising her fist back.

Vanille cringed.

Fang bonked Vanille lightly on the forehead. "You've got some explaining to do, Missy," she knew the coldness in her voice would hurt the other girl a lot more than her physical strike. "And don't start with the crocodile tears."

Knowing she was busted, the younger girl turned off the puppy dog eyes before she had even gotten the chance to really turn them on, and followed Fang into the bedroom where they sat on the bottom of the adjacent bunks.

Fang continued to glare at Vanille, knowing she didn't really have to say anything at all. It would only be a matter of time before the younger girl cracked.

And crack Vanille did.

"Fang, I just... wanted you to enjoy a girl's company once in your life." Vanille finally mumbled, pushing her index fingers together awkwardly. "I thought... I thought that maybe if you experienced love, even once, then maybe you wouldn't take Fal'Cie Anima's trials..."

Fang stared at Vanille, the expression on her face quickly going from stern, to flabbergast.

Sweet, merciful Goddess, where had she gone wrong! There were so many things wrong with that sentence; Fang barely knew where to begin. Fang pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming on. "Vanille... you are *so* wrong, I don't even know where to start correcting you."

But Vanille interrupted her. "Don't give me that, Oerba Yun Fang." Vanille balled her hands into fists.

"I *know* you're going to take Fal'Cie Anima's trials soon! You'll become L'Cie to destroy Cocoon, so you don't give a damn about your future because you don't think you'll have one beyond that! But if you could only get a taste... a taste of what love is, then maybe... maybe you won't go. I... I don't want you to go..." The force of her own words were, evidently, a bit of a shock to the younger girl, who suddenly found unbidden tears in her eyes. She hastily wiped at them, even as Fang sighed, walked over, and pulled the younger girl into a hug.

"First things first, Vanille." Fang finally said when the younger girl had calmed herself down. She held up one finger.

"One. Sex is not love. Never confuse those two. You've got so many boys on your tail these days that if you confuse those two, you'll be in a shit-ton of trouble."

She held up a second finger. "Two. I've had sex before. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to risk your toddler brain copy-cat-ing me until you were old enough to understand the consequences, which, evidently, you still don't. And Trella isn't exactly my type."

She held up a third finger. "Three. I know what love is. Love is what we have. Love is willing to give up everything for someone else for their happiness. I love you, and I know you love me. You will always be my number one, and everything I do is because I want you to be happy."

She held up her last finger. "Four. You can't be happy, and I can't be happy, and no one in all of Gran Pulse can be happy, until those bastard vipers in the sky pay for all they've taken from us, and are rendered absolutely *incapable* of taking any more."

Then Fang lowered her four fingers and took Vanille's hand, which she enclosed in her fist, and pressed to her heart. "Five. I also know that you're not ready to be without me yet, so I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon. Before I take Fal'Cie Anima's trials, you can be sure we'll have talked bloody long about it, and you'll have grown up and found someone you want to start a family with. I won't go until then." Fang paused. "However, this is not an invitation to never grow up, understood?"

Vanille could only mutely nod. Then she smothered her face into Fang's chest to weep softly.

Fang sighed and rubbed the younger girl's back until she was finished.

"Fang?" Vanille finally said.

"Hmm?"

"What was sex like?"

Fang rolled her eyes. Of course, that would be the one point out of all those she had made that would make it through Vanille's skull. Oh well. At least this meant things were more or less back to normal. "It was nice, Vanille. But don't you start, y'hear?"

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the lecture, more with the details!" Vanille pushed herself away from Fang, and the older girl was internally both relieved and exasperated to see the gleam in the younger one's eyes. "Who did you do it with?"

"I'm not kissing and telling. That's what got Trella in trouble, yeah?"

"Oh, come on, Fang! At least tell me what your type is?" Then Vanille paused. "It was with a girl, right? Oh, Goddess, please don't tell me I know absolutely *nothing* about you?"

Fang groaned, getting up to go to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She knew that if she didn't give Vanille something to chew on, they'd never get to sleep that night. And telling the younger girl what she liked wouldn't necessary put her on the path to figure who she'd been with.

Well, some of them, anyway.

"I like legs. That's all you're getting. Goodnight."

* * *

**Author's notes & Omake:**

One more chapter during Pre-game times out to round it off, I think! But that might not be for a while, I should get back to post-game times for actual plot advancement, and during-game for character development. *sigh* Please bear with me! -_-;; The next chapter will go to during-game for FLlight exposition!

Please find omake following; sorry only one this time.

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

Omake 1: Fang's type

VANILLE: [Annoyingly] Oh, come on, Fang! At least tell me what your type is? It was with a girl, right? Oh, Goddess, please don't tell me I know absolutely *nothing* about you?

FANG: Hmm... [Thinks about it] I like butts. Really big butts. When a girl walks by with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in my face, I get-

LIGHTNING: [Bursting on screen, eyebrow twitching] Ex*CUSE* me?

VANILLE: ... Isn't that song a bit old for a pop culture reference?


	8. Ch 8 III 4 The Door of Souls

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 8: (III.4) The Door of Souls  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
January 26 - February 22, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Postgame. Lightning and Fang find themselves at the Door of Souls. The quest to save Fang and Vanille begins.

* * *

Lightning and Fang whirled around to face the direction of the voice that had 'spoken', but there was no one else in the ruined temple with them.

_'CLAIRE, PLEASE, USE YOUR WILL. SHAPE ME.'_

Shape? Oh, Right. Recalling her actions from the crystal cavern, Lightning did as asked, closing her eyes. This time, however, the image of the woman she knew as Etro did not appear in her mind's eye. Instead, upon hearing Fang give a short 'huh?' of surprise, Lightning opened her eyes to see a crystal statue of Etro before her.

The statue was steadily crumbling, even as Lightning looked at it.

"... Etro?" Lightning tried, hesitantly, addressing the statue. "Is that you?"

_'Yes.' _The Goddess's voice emanated from the statue, though it seemed softer and weaker than it had been in the crystal cavern. _'I apologize for the confusion, but I cannot accompany you into Buniberzei's dream, as I am not welcome here. Time grows short, and you must begin your quest now to retrieve your friends from the chaos.'_

Lightning was stunned. "Wait. Who is Buniberzie? You said we were at the Door of souls? This... place..." Lightning gestured at the remains of the temple around her, "this place is the Door of Souls?"

'Door of Souls', was definitely something Lightning recalled from the events that led up to the fall of Cocoon. It had been what Barthandelus had been trying to open through the genocide of Cocoon's people.

This could _*not*_ be a good place to be.

If a statue could sigh, Lightning figured that this one was doing it.

_'No, this *world* is the Door of Souls. This temple is a portal to the Door of Souls, and the only place where I may exercise my influence, though not for much longer.' The crystal statue crumbled further, losing part of its face._

Lightning could hear Fang speaking up beside her, the confusion in Fang's voice as clear as it had been in Lightning's own. "Wait, do you mean to say that this whole world is a door?"

_'In a sense. The Door of Souls is not an actual place. It is a metaphor denoting the passage from the visible world, your world, into the invisible world, also known as the chaos: that which does not exist. However, the Maker, Buniberzei, seeks the Door of Souls, even as he slumbers, and we are in his dream. So, the door is given a manifestation in his dream: this world. Because, as Buniberzei is the Maker, if he dreams that it exists, then, it exists.'_

"The Maker?" There were so many questions in Lightning's head. Portions of ruined analects she'd once read so long ago sprung to her mind. "Wait, isn't the Maker referring to the Gods, Pulse and Lindzei? The creators of Gran Pulse and Cocoon?"

_'No.'_ The rest of Etro's face crumbled to the ground, followed shortly by her entire head thereafter. _'Pulse and Lindzei may have the power of gods, but they are bound to Focus, tasks that Buniberzei left for them, and so they are Fal'Cie.'_

"Fal'Cie?" Fang's face darkened. "Like Anima? And Orphan?"

_'To compare Anima and Orphan to Pulse and Lindzei is to compare a matchstick to a volcano.'_

The statue continued to the detriment of its continued existence. _'Buniberzei left Pulse and Lindzei several tasks. They were to expand the visible world, seek the Door of Souls, and open it. When it was ready to be opened, Buniberzei was to be awakened, so that he may pass through it. Lindzei was to protect him while he slept.'_

It was getting more difficult to hear Etro now, though the pain in her voice was plain enough. _'Such an endless cycle of regret. What Buniberzei did not know, is that he himself would find the Door of Souls, and that Pulse and Lindzei never would, so long as they labored to. Only when they ended, and entered their own eternal slumber, would they arrive here, where Buniberzei himself already is._

_'Pulse and Lindzei, searching to complete their own focus, created their own Fal'Cie and L'Cie, tasking them with the same contradictory tasks, knowing, or not knowing, that for their Fal'Cie to complete the task, they too would have to end.'_

Right, Lightning thought darkly. Destroying Orphan before he was born, and taking the rest of humanity and Cocoon with him. And he would have succeeded too, if not for...

Evidently, Fang was having the same sorts of thoughts, for she touched her own right shoulder then, where her scorched L'Cie brand was. "That's why you helped us." Fang finally said. "Twice. Because you knew there was no point to killing millions. Cocoon may have had to be destroyed, but the people, they didn't have to die."

_'It was not just I, who leant a hand.'_ The statue replied. _'In the visible world, Buniberzei's body sleeps as a crystal. This crystal, raised by Ragnarok, is now being used to support Cocoon.'_

That information struck Lightning like a thunderbolt, and for a while, she was not able to fully comprehend the significance of that revelation. A look in Fang's direction found the hunter with an expression of flabbergast on her face also. Stunned silence loomed in the ruined temple, before Etro's voice could be heard again.

_'Please, ask your questions now,'_ the statue implored. _'My time is almost at an end.'_

There were so many questions swimming in Lightning's head though, she wasn't quite sure where to begin. Opening and closing her mouth a few times, she finally managed to struggle out the most important one. "So what is our mission? Our target?" She blurted. She was a soldier after all. "How do we rescue Fang and Vanille?"

The statue had crumbled down to mid chest. Etro's voice grew further away, ever more difficult to hear.

_'Buniberzei's mind created this world as the door between the visible world and the invisible world. When humans die, their souls come through here en route to the chaos. And, similarly, when humans are born, their souls come through here en route to the visible world._

_'A God cannot die. A Fal'Cie cannot die. But they can come close; they can become trapped in crystal sleep. When that happens, they can come here, or their minds can come here, as well. Therefore, Buniberzei is here. And Lindzei came here when Cocoon fell as well._

_'But it is not only those from the visible world who can visit here. Those from the chaos can visit here too. And there are many things from the chaos what wish to come here, for they wish to destroy Buniberzei and take his place as God of the visible world._

_'In your case, Lightning, you are still alive. Your body has entered into this realm, for I have transported you here. If you can open this place, this 'Door of Souls', you will have the choice to either return back to the visible world, or you can go into the chaos._

_'Your friends are in crystal sleep. It is like death. And so their circumstances are reversed. In their case, their souls remained in the visible world, for they wished to stay with their friends, but their bodies had already gone onto the chaos. As you, Lightning, have bodily come into this place, their souls have followed you here, and are given physical manifestation here. If this place, the Door of Souls, is open, they can go into the chaos to retrieve their bodies, then follow you back to the visible world. That is what you must do.'_

By the end of the long explanation, only the bottom portion of Etro's dress remained, the rest of her had already crumbled to the ground.

"Wait!" Lightning cried, urgency overtaking her. There was still so much she didn't know! "How do we do that?"

_'You must wake Buniberzei. He dreamed this realm into existence. If he wakes, this realm will cease to exist. It is in that nothingness that there is freedom to move between worlds.'_

Lightning blinked, then widened her eyes as realization hit her. "Wait, if Buniberzei wakes up... wouldn't his body be free from the crystal? Wouldn't that destroy Cocoon AND Gran Pulse?"

But by then, the Goddess had crumbled to nothing, and there would be no more answers from her. Etro's parting words were so soft, Lightning had to strain to hear, and even then, she couldn't quite catch it all.

_'... extend ... my influence... seek... he may assist... he is... close.'_

"Etro, wait! Wait!" Lightning shouted, reaching for the statue.

Her hand reached only the pile of fine crystal dust the statue had become. Lightning lifted a handful of it up and watched as the grains slipped through her fingers, cursing softly. "Great," she muttered. She looked over at Fang. "Any ideas?"

The hunter had a faraway look in her eyes, and didn't answer Lightning right away.

Lightning frowned. "Fang?" She repeated.

That faraway look didn't leave the hunter's eyes, even though she spoke. "Etro said, 'their souls have followed you here, and are given physical manifestation here'... she means Vanille and I, yeah?"

And then Lightning realized the problem: if both Fang and Vanille were here, then where the hell was Vanille? Concern filled her heart. "Fang, can you feel her?"

Fang didn't answer right away, the look of concentration on her face growing more intense. And then, finally, she nodded, and the faraway look left her eyes. "Yeah." She determined. "I can. It's pretty weak, but I think I can feel her," she pointed to her left, "that way."

Lightning nodded, feeling a hint of relief creeping into her heart. Though her head was still full of questions, at least they had something to work towards, a goal to focus on. "Okay then. First things first, we find Vanille."

Lightning turned to head in the direction Fang had pointed before she felt the hunter's grip on her wrist, and found herself pulled back towards the other woman.

"No, first things first," Fang replied, even as she spun Lightning around.

Suddenly, Lightning felt hands cupping the sides of her face and lips upon her own as Fang kissed her, long and deep.

It only took Lightning a fraction of a moment to respond. She closed her eyes and eagerly returned the kiss, wrapping her arms around Fang's waist. Fang tasted exactly as Lightning remembered, and something inside her rejoiced and sang with glory at finally, *finally* being able to embrace with the other woman once more. Fang was warm and sweet and all manner of soft. They kissed, and kissed, and kissed...

Eventually, they broke apart, though not very far. Fang was reluctant to release Lightning's face, as Lightning was reluctant to unhand the other woman's waist. They stood, foreheads and noses touching, cheeks flushed and chests heaving. Lightning kept her eyes closed, savoring the sensation of Fang's body pressed so close against hers. She felt maybe a little dizzy from the exhilaration of it all- Goddess, but it had been so *long* - but eventually, when she opened her eyes, she could vaguely make out the twinkle in the other woman's beautiful jade eyes.

Fang sighed, removing a hand from Lightning's face, but only to run her fingers gently through Lightning's soft, pink locks. "Sorry, Sunshine, but that was long overdue."

Lightning couldn't help but agree with Fang's sentiment with another soft peck on her mouth.

* * *

The Door of Souls was *huge*. Fang wasn't sure if it was bigger than Gran Pulse or not, but the landscape seemed to stretch on forever and ever as far as her eyes could see.

The landscape was certainly reminiscent of Gran Pulse, and the Archylte Steppe in particular. Fang supposed that wasn't too much of a surprise as Buniberzei made both these worlds after all. Maybe he didn't have a very robust imagination.

As Fang and Lightning stepped out of the temple, Fang absently felt Lightning touch her upper arm, where her brand was. She looked over at the woman and found her pretty features crinkled with thought.

"... was this always here?" Lightning asked.

Fang nodded. She realized that the other members of their L'Cie family had lost their brands, thankfully, upon the fall of Cocoon, but hers and Vanille's brands had remained. Vanille's, like Fang's own, had become scorched white. They had theorized at the time that it might have been a symbol of Etro's touch, though they hadn't been able to confirm it.

Then Lightning and Fang appeared to come to the same thought. They both looked down at Lightning's chest at the same time. The soldier gingerly touched her left breast, over top of her heart. Then Lightning looked back up at Fang, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes and the slightest of twitches at the corner of her lips.

There was no way Fang could miss the invitation in Lightning's eyes.

"... don't be shy?" Fang repeated some of her earliest words to the soldier, grinning at the fond memory.

Lightning smirked. "Like there's anything to be shy about anymore." She pulled the zipper of her top down and lifted the left lapel of her jacket, exposing her chest. Fang bent down to examine the skin, and sure enough, just overtop of Lightning's heart, was a white scorched brand, similar to Fang's own. Fang couldn't help but realize that against Lightning's snowy pale skin, the brand was not quite as noticeable as it was against Fang's own tanned skin.

"What do you think this means?" Lightning asked.

Fang could only shrug; damned if she knew. But a thought did occur to her. "Try a spell?"

Lightning nodded. Looking down at her hand - the one she'd bloodied so badly against the floor of the crystal cavern (funny, that seemed so long ago), Lightning muttered 'cure' softly, and was rewarded when familiar strands of greenish light emanated from her body, then dissipated. She smiled as she was then able to open and close her fist with little difficulty. "Huh." She looked over at Fang. "Well, look at that. Guess I'm L'Cie again. Think it might be Etro's doing?"

"That would be my guess." Fang agreed. "I think I like her more than Anima. At least she doesn't threaten you with Cie'th-hood if you don't do what she wants." She paused. "I think."

With that they ventured off in the general direction Fang was feeling Vanille's pull from. Fang thanked Etro silently that she was able to feel her oldest friend. She wasn't sure what kind of state she'd be in right now if she couldn't. At least last time she'd been separated from Vanille, they'd been on *earth*. Who knew what this realm was like.

Still, it was worrisome that the direction Fang felt Vanille from seemed to stretch on and on. The redhead was definitely _*not*_ close by.

They travelled at a brisk jog, not quite sure what sort of dangers may be awaiting them. The land was hilly, with various plateaus and dips dotting the landscape. Overtop, there was a sky, clouds, and a sun that seemed to be moving across the sky. It really _*did*_ look a lot like Gran Pulse. Had she not known better, Fang really would have thought she was back on the Archylte Steppe...

... until they ran into their first local.

"Fang, do you see that?" Lightning asked softly, pointing up ahead.

Fang scanned the distance and frowned. There appeared to be an old man wearing what could only be a hospital gown walking slowly and aimlessly just in front of them, but even as Fang looked at him, he faded out of existence. A short while later, he reappeared several meters away from them, still walking slowly, though in a different direction from before. He only managed to walk several steps before he faded from view once again, only to show up to Fang's far right, this time, walking towards them. Then he disappeared again.

Fang blinked several times and rubbed her face. "Damn eyes are playing tricks on me," she muttered. "Do you see an old bloke disappearing and reappearing?"

Lightning nodded warily.

Suddenly, the old man popped up right in front of them. Fang barely had time to give an undignified yelp of surprise as the old man walked right _*through*_ her, as though she wasn't even there. "What the hell!" Fang cried, as the old man disappeared again. She stared incredulously at Lightning.

The size of the pink haired soldier's eyes showed she was just as surprised as Fang was.

They scanned the horizon for any sign of the man; he now appeared to be several dozen feet away from them.

Suddenly, as they watched, a second figure appeared behind the old man, and put a hand on the old man's shoulder.

The figure appeared to be a winged person, and reminded Fang a little of Etro in that it was roughly seven feet tall and willowy thin. Fang couldn't help but feel a sense of strange tranquility wash over her as she gazed at the creature.

It had four wings which appeared to be made of blue-tinged light. The wings weren't quite attached to the figure, but rather, seemed to emanating from its back. Two of them were larger, and were positioned to be coming out of its shoulder blades while two smaller ones seemed to come from the small of it back.

Its face was roughly human-like, though its mouth seemed a bit small for the size of its head, while its eyes were slightly larger than expected and had no irises. As it touched the old man's shoulder, the fellow turned to face it with surprise, but no fear.

Its hair was bluish-white in color, and seemed to stand on end, defying gravity, and waving gently in non-existent wind. It wore bluish-white armor that seemed to be a mix of clothing and metal, and was of a design Fang could not place.

"Oh, hello," the old man said to the creature. "Can you help me? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing now. Might you know?"

The Pulsian native couldn't hear the winged creature's response, but evidently it was communicating with the old man somehow, for the old man then said, "oh, that would be lovely. Thank you! Thank you!"

Fang wasn't quite sure what happened next.

The winged creature put its hands gently on the sides of the old man's face, and closed its eyes. As Fang watched, the old man's form grew blurry, and then seem to evaporate into thin air entirely. All that remained in his place was a glowing ball of bluish light, which was now being cradled gently in the winged creature's palms.

When the winged creature opened its eyes, it lifted the ball of light up, as though in offering, and then the ball of light faded away.

Its task done, the winged creature then regarded Fang and Lightning, cocking its head to the side quizzically.

Not letting her eyes leave the creature for a moment, Fang leaned over towards Lightning and muttered softly under her breathe, "what do you think it is?"

"How should I know?" Lightning responded, bewilderment equally evident in her words as they had been in Fang's.

Still, the soldier went a step further and cleared her throat. "Um... can you understand me?" She spoke loudly to the creature.

The creature frowned. It gave a little jump into the air, and promptly disappeared.

"Wait!" Lighting called, taking a step forward.

But the creature had gone.

* * *

As they continued to travel, they tried to make sense of the encounter they just had with the... whatever the heck it was.

They didn't have much luck. Their attention was stolen however, as they made their way around the foot of a plateau.

Fang could hear sounds of a battle coming from just up ahead. She traded a worried glance with Lightning; why would there be battle here?

Cautiously, they rounded the land structure to see what was making the ruckus.

A winged creature - similar to the one they had seen earlier, with just enough minor difference to show it was not the same individual - was fighting against what looked like a pissed off cloud of smoke.

The cloud was approximately the size and shape of a behemoth, though that was where the similarity ended. It was difficult to describe because it appeared to be made of dark, dense smoke. Fang could not really make out any individual features, as the smoke appeared to obscure everything, but it appeared to be solid and probably did have limbs, as a section of smoke was extended out from the smoke's main mass and was swatting at the winged figure. From where they stood, Fang could *feel* the malevolent intent emanating from the thing.

The winged creature, for its part, did not appear to be doing very well against the monster. All it could really do was dodge and screech in animal fury at the monster.

Fang glanced at Lightning out of the corner of her eyes, and noticed that the soldier had her hand on her gunblade. Fang felt a grim smile come to her face as she reached for her own weapon.

They might not have been able to tell head from tail, but there was no way the malice coming from the 'cloud' could make it the 'good guy' in this situation.

Suddenly, a second 'limb' extended from the main mass of the formless monster, and struck the winged figure head on. It gave a distinct grunt of pain as it was smashed into the ground.

That sealed the verdict.

Running from their place of cover, Fang and Lightning rushed the smoke cloud.

Lightning unleashed a series of magical spells against it, even as Fang launched high into the air to execute Highwind; if the smoke cloud was solid enough to hit, Fang reasoned, then it would be solid enough to _*be hit*._

The result was more than a little embarrassing for Fang as she unexpected went right through the thing. Caught completely by surprise when her lance hit absolutely nothing at all instead of something solid, Fang quickly found herself _*inside*_ her target.

It was an absolutely unholy experience.

Fang couldn't help it; she screamed.

* * *

"Fang!" Lightning cried in shock when the high flying woman disappeared into their enemy. She quickly cancelled the spell she had been ready to unleash, unsure if it would hit Fang as well.

A split second later, Lightning could hear Fang screaming, and then the woman came tumbling out of the side of the cloud, still hollering as though she were on fire, and scrambling madly to get away from the thing.

Seeing the other woman safely away from the creature, Lighting saw an opportunity and unloaded a series of fire and thunder at the target.

She seemed to have a bit more luck than Fang did as the smoke cloud gave a deep howl and appeared to writhe in pain.

Lightning noted that only magic should be used against this enemy and quickly tossed a few more spells at the creature, quickly getting its undivided attention.

Several large tendrils of spoke shot out from the creature's main body at Lightning, and the soldier had to execute several backward flips in quick succession to avoid being hit, firing off more spells at the creature as she did so.

It took several more rounds of this before the creature gave a howl of pain, and dissipated into nothing.

Not wasting a second, Lightning quickly rushed to Fang's side. The other woman had a wild look of madness in her eyes and was clutching at her head while sprouting gibberish.

"Fang!" Lightning cried, grabbing the Pulsian native, even as she cast several cures on her. "Calm down! Calm down!"

But Fang would not. She struggled against Lightning's grip, all the while uttering nonsense.

"Fang! FANG!" Lightning continued to cry the other woman's name, refusing to let go of the Pulsian and taking a pummeling for her trouble. She barely even felt the strikes over the horror that was roiling in her heart.

What the hell had happened to Fang?

Suddenly, Lightning felt herself being pulled away from Fang, and realized it was the winged creature doing so. As Lightning watched in horrific fascination, it placed its hands around Fang's head. A blue light emanated from its palms, and Fang instantly calmed, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

When the winged creature removed its hands, Fang's eyes fluttered opened and she blinked confusedly at the figure, confusion and then alarm clearly evident in her gaze. Her eyes searched for Lightning and it wasn't until their gazes locked that Fang calmed again. Her eyes darted back and forth between Lightning and the winged figure. "What... happened?" Fang finally asked.

The answer came to Lightning's mind, though it certainly didn't originate there.

_'You jumped into a Chaotic Beast. That was, without a doubt, the most fantastic display of utter idiocy I have ever witnessed.'_

* * *

It didn't take long for them to realize that it was the winged person who had spoken, directly into their heads.

Lightning couldn't help but feel weary. Why did it suddenly seem like everyone and their dog could perform telepathy? But even as she wondered if her thoughts were safe, she heard Fang speak up, annoyance clear as day in her voice, "hey, where do you get off calling me an idiot, you overgrown dragonfly! We just saved your neck!"

_'And *I* just saved *your* sanity,'_ the winged figure replied coolly. _'That beast came to the Door of Souls from the chaos. To jump into it is to jump into the chaos itself, and human minds are not mean to comprehend such enormity.' _But then she cocked her head as she looked between Fang and Lightning. _'But then again... you two are not merely Etro's children, are you?' _She pointed at Fang's arm, at the white scorched brand. _'You are Etro's Champions, are you not? Why did you not invoke her gifts prior to challenging the Chaotic Beast?'_

Fang gave the winged creature a hooded glare. "Because I have no idea what the hell you're talking about."

The winged figure frowned._ 'Do you not carry Etro's talismans?'_

Fang looked over at Lightning, who suddenly felt something click in her mind. Silently, she put her hand over her breast overtop of her brand, and thought about Odin. As she did so, she felt her Eidolon Crystal materialize into her palm. Opening her hand, she showed it to Fang and the creature. "Are you talking about this?" Lightning asked.

The creature nodded. _'Yes. That is proof that you have received Etro's gifts. You should invoke them. Humans could not hope to challenge creatures from the chaos without the support of Gods.'_

Fang placed her hand over her other shoulder. There was a brief glow, and when she opened her palm, she too had called up her Eidolon Crystal. She looked over at Lightning, as if to say, _'what do you think'?_

Hearing Fang's unspoken question, Lightning couldn't help but shrug._ What could it hurt?_

They tossed their crystals up into the air. Lightning quickly turned her weapon into gun mode and let a single shot fly at her crystal, shattering it, even as Fang smashed her crystal to shards with the sharp end of her lance.

The two women waited for Odin and Bahamut to arrive, but the Eidolons never showed. Instead, summoning circles appeared on the ground beneath their very feet, bathing everything in light.

It was so bright, Lightning had to close her eyes.

She only opened them again, when she heard Fang give a low whistle of appreciation.

Cracking her eyes open, the first thing Lightning saw was Fang as she'd never seen her before.

The Pulsian hunter's regular clothing had been replaced with ornately patterned black armor across her chest, one shoulder, forearms and hands up to her knuckles, half her hips, as well as her legs from her knees down to her feet. The patterns engraved into the armor reminded Lightning a bit of the Menhirrim in Taejin's Tower.

Fang's weapon - her Kain Lance - had also changed, and appeared to now be made from the same substance as the black armor. Something told Lightning that Fang would have no problem executing physical attacks against any Chaotic Beasts in the future with that thing.

A war-like 'mask' framed the edges of Fang's face. It was more for decoration than actual protection, as it didn't really cover the woman's head or face very much, save for her forehead and the sides of her face; two pieces of the mask extended down from her temples to her jaw, roughly an inch and a half in width. Fearsome twin horns stuck out from the mask just above each of Fang's eyes, roughly four inches in length each.

The flesh around Fang's mid-drift and one shoulder continued to be exposed, as did both of her upper arms. Lightning could still clearly see Fang's tattoo on one bicep with her scorched brand on the other.

The armor around Fang's hips appeared to be made of several different parts to allow for movement. The armor was short, and reached down to mid-thigh on one of Fang's legs. The other leg did not appear to be covered in armor; instead, Lightning could recognize the 'dress' part of Fang's old blue sari. The twin animal pelts Fang wore from her belt were still present.

All in all, Lightning couldn't help but think Fang looked quite dashing.

For her part, the Pulsian native didn't appear to be looking at herself though. Her gaze was firmly on Lightning's body, and the soldier realized that this mean that her own outfit had likely changed as well.

Looking down at herself, Lightning found that she too, was now adorned in armor, though hers was silver in color and had a different design from Fang's.

Her guardian corp jacket was gone, as was her regular clothing. She wore a fitted black body suit underneath silver armor which stretched across her chest and shoulders. Whilst Fang's armor was etched with archaic patterns, Lightning's own was smoother, with simpler lines and crests in the metal. A circular shield was attached to her right elbow.

Her gunblade, now in blade form, was barely recognizable to her, seeming to be at half again as big as her omega was in width and length. Fortunately, it didn't seem to weigh anymore though.

Her leg armor reached up to the middle of her thighs, with impressive spikes at the knees.

Perhaps the most outlandish part of her outfit was a half-skirt which covering her left side, from the hip down, and was made of white feathers.

Lighting looked back over at Fang. Many thoughts crowded her mind, but she couldn't help but voice her most immediate concern.

"... well, this can't be practical."

* * *

_Author's Notes & Omake:_

Yay! Finally getting to plot! ^_^ My apologies about the massive amount of exposition in the first scene...

I understand that FFXIII-2 is supposed to take place in an entirely different world from Gran Pulse & Cocoon, so I'm trying to build an interesting one. I know I'm not doing so very gracefully, and this chapter has a lot more 'tell' than 'show' in it, but I thought it was important to set out some basic mechanics.

So far, I have to admit that I'm really not a fan of Lightning's new look as per the FFXIII-2 trailer, so please don't expect them to be in the new clothes very much. :( Maybe it'll grow on me...

Please let me know what you think so far, and if there's anything that doesn't make sense or requires further explanation!

(As a heads up, explanations about the winged figure, and the fact that Muin was the Maker rather than Buniberzei, are forthcoming).

Next chapter will either be pre-game or during-game! Haven't decided yet!

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

OMAKE 1: It's Homage! Really!

[LIGHTNING and FANG find themselves in the temple]

FANG: I think we're in a dream.

LIGHTING: Who's dream?

ETRO: The Maker's. Buniberzie. Welcome to the Door of Souls.

LIGHTING: I'm in a god's dream?

ETRO: Yes.

LIGHTING: Wait... this sounds kinda familiar... Wasn't that the plot of FFX?

ETRO: [Sweatdrop] Uh... maybe...?

* * *

OMAKE 2: Shinigami by Any Other Name

[FANG and LIGHTNING watch as the WINGED CREATURE taps the OLD MAN on the shoulder]

OLD MAN: Oh, hello. Can you help me? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing now. Might you know?

WINGED CREATURE: Yeah. You're dead. I'm here to take your soul to the other world.

FANG: [taps WINGED CREATURE on the shoulder] You know what? Sorry mate, but you look *nothing* like death should. Shouldn't you look more like this? [Shows a picture of a SKELETON with a SCYTHE]

LIGHTNING: Or something like this? [Shows a picture of RYUK from DEATH NOTE]

FANG: Or like this? [Shows a picture of BOTAN from YU YU HAKUSHO]

LIGHTING: Or this? [Shows a picture of RUKIA from BLEACH]

FANG: Or this? [Shows a picture of SHINIGAMI-SAMA from SOUL EATER)

LIGHTNING: Or this? [Shows a picture of ENMA from DRAGON BALL Z]

FANG: Or-

WINGED CREATURE: Okay, seriously? You guys watch waaay too much anime.

* * *

OMAKE 3: New Clothes!

LIGHTING: [Eyes twitching as she looks down at her armor. Looks at Fang] Well, what do you think?

FANG: I like it!

LIGHTNING: I don't know... [twirls around] It's kinda drafty. I feel like I'm showing a lot of ass in this outfit!

FANG: ... why do you think I like it?


	9. Ch 9 II 3 Differing Societal Values

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 9: (II.3) Differing Societal Values  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By Jen-chan

January 19 - January 21, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: During-game. Fang makes a fantastic discovery about the customs of Cocoon.

* * *

Fang's mind was absolutely reeling with the information she had just learned.

This...! This could change everything! She sped over fallen trees and puddles, paying little regard to the foliage she was quickly passing by until she finally reached the small clearing where they had set up camp. The object of her search was, luckily, in the middle of the clearing, readying the fire, in all her pink-haired glory.

Fang burst in on Lightning, an expression that could only be described as agitated on her face. With no preamble, she cried out, "Women can marry each other on Cocoon?"

Lightning, still squatted down by the campfire to light it, blinked up at Fang confusedly, with an expression on her face that said that she was trying to decide if Fang had just stated the obvious or asked a question. In the end, she evidently settled on the latter, as she decided to entertain the Oerban. Standing up, Lightning brushed the dirt from her hands and regarded Fang with amused eyes. "Um... yes?"

The tone in her voice made it clear to Fang that the other woman thought she might as well have asked if water was wet.

Fang decided to let the amusement at her expense drop for now. There were more important things. "For real?" She pressed.

Lightning arched an eyebrow. "Of course we can..."

Now the agitation on Fang's face turned to wonder. "... Blimey!" She breathed, putting her hands on her hips as she paced back and forth. "That's... that s incredible!"

Lightning gave a short snort of a laugh, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why, can't they on Pulse?"

Fang stopped her pacing and looked at Lightning like she had two heads. "Well... no!" She replied.

Now Lightning blinked, evidently understanding the cause of Fang's disbelief. "Why not?"

"Well, I..." Fang contemplated this for a moment, "... I guess I don't really know," she admitted, a look of slow epiphany dawning on her face. "I mean I just never... I mean..." She caught the amused look on Lightning's face, again at her expense. "Well, I mean, life is hard on Pulse! Every hunt is a risk - you don't know if you went out one day if you'd come back by the end of it, so it was important to, you know, prosper and multiple and carry on your family line and all that, right? I mean... if you guys have same-sex marriages... how'd you have kids?"

"I don't know the specifics, but I think there are a few different options. We have promulgation clinics that help with that sort of thing."

"Really..." Fang breathed. "That's... that's incredible!"

"Is it?" Evidently, it didn't seem all that incredible to Lightning. She shrugged. "Same-sex relationships have always existed on Cocoon. I mean, it's not like it's a big percentage of the population who prefer it, but there are some. There isn't any Sanctum guidance around it, so, we've always been free to be with who we want. Isn't that the way it should be?"

"Well... yes! No! I don't know!" Fang had to think about this for a moment.

She couldn't believe it! Here she'd always thought that Cocoonians were totally backwards and didn't understand a single thing about what was important in life, when in fact, they actually got some things more right than the Pulsians did!

But before Fang could curse her luck for being born on the wrong planet, she did have to remind herself that the people of Cocoon had never had to fight for survival on a daily basis. Societal values were probably thus more about personal achievement and fulfillment rather than genetic propagation.

Fang caught Lightning smirking. "Why are you asking all of this anyway?" It wasn't everyday that the normally cucumber-cool hunter was off balanced by anything; there was no way Lightning was going to let this chance to get back at her go; Fang certainly gave the soldier a hard time whenever she could.

"Do you wanna make babies with Vanille?"

Fang shut up, a massive flush darkening her cheeks.

But before the soldier could delight in scoring a direct hit for too long, Fang recovered. Crossing her arms, the Pulsian let the blush fade from her face as she roved her eyes up and down Lightning appraisingly. She'd done so many times before, but had never been so crass as to do so directly in front of the soldier before. "... Nah, I think our lovechild would be cuter."

And just like that, Lightning found herself on the defense, and all was right in the world. She gave Fang a dirty look, and stalked away.

* * *

The topic didn't come up that day again, until well into the night, when most everyone else had gone to sleep. Unable to sleep, Lightning got up and went to look for Fang, whom she knew was on sentinel duty. She found the hunter a little ways away from the group. Fang didn't acknowledger her as she approached, evidently lost in thought.

"So... what was up with all the questions this afternoon?"

"Hmm?" Fang turned to see who had spoken. Seeing Lightning, she gave a nod in greeting, before turning her face away from the soldier again.

"... so Hope asked Vanille to marry him this afternoon."

Lightning boggled. "What?"

Fang chuckled. "Relax. The poor kid didn't realize what he was doing."

* * *

Somehow, Hope had managed to convince Fang to take him hunting with her and Vanille. Normally, Fang would have said no, but after the boy's harrowing encounter with Alexander, she figured he could use some confidence building.

And so, they had gone hunting that afternoon. And, as luck would have it, the first prey they came across, was the elusive palarex antelope. Fang pointed the animal out to the other two and saw Vanille's face light up when she saw it.

"You're in luck, Hope!" Vanille said quietly to the boy. "That's the palarex! In Oerba, when a boy wants to become a man, he hunts the palarex. If he's successful, the whole village will then acknowledge him as an adult, for he's hunted and provided a meal for the village! Oh, I haven't had palarex in forever! It's delicious!"

"Really?" Hope looked... well, hopeful. He gripped Fang's spear in his hands tightly.

Fang 'shhed' her younger companions. They didn't want to scare the beast away.

Formulating a plan, they proceeded to track and corner the animal for the next little while, until they were able to strike.

Normally, the palarex was a very challenging hunt, requiring years of experience. For the l'cie, it was not quite as difficult, as they were able to use their magic in somewhat unorthodox ways.

Vanille casted Aeroga, lifting the beast up into the air and trapping it momentarily. During this instant, Fang and Hope were able to rush the beast.

"Now!" Fang cried, "Slash its throat, quick as you can. Make it clean and painless!"

Steeling himself, Hope did as Fang taught, and soon, the beast laid still. The Oerbans taught Hope to touch his fingers together in prayer, and give a word of thanks to the beast that had passed on so that they could live.

"Oh, wow, good job, Hope!" Vanille beamed. She gave the boy a congratulatory hug, then quickly pulled a knife from one of the pouches around her waist and handed it to the silver-haired boy. "Quick, cut off its tongue!"

Hope turned a little green as he held the knife and took a look at the dead palarex. "D-do I have to?" He swallowed back the bile rising in the back of his throat. Now that the hunt was over, the adrenaline that had kept him going all afternoon was quickly leaving him, and he wasn't entirely sure he ever wanted to hunt again.

"Yeah! It's the best part!" Vanille declared.

Fang couldn't help but chuckle at Vanille's enthusiasm. Of course she'd tell the boy to go straight for the palarex's tongue - that delicacy was the whole reason Oerbans men hunted the challenging prey.

Hope didn't look like he believed Vanille, but none the less, he managed to steel his nerves once more, pry open the animal's mouth, and sever the item. Lifting the slimy organ out, he couldn't quite stop himself from wrinkling his nose, thought he did try.

"Congratulations," Fang said proudly, clapping the boy on his back hard enough to stagger him. "Your first kill! By the customs of the Hunters of Oerba, this makes you a man, Hope. Treasure this victory."

Hope gave Fang a weak smile. "Um... thank you, Fang. But, I couldn't have done it without Vanille." He turned to face the red headed girl and offered the palarex tongue to her. "Here, Vanille. You like this, don't you? Why don't you have it? I, uh, I'm not sure I'll be able to... uh... properly appreciate such a... delicacy..."

Vanille's mouth dropped open in shock even as Fang's eyebrows arched towards her hairline at the unexpected offer. They both stood there, dumbfounded, until Vanille woodenly looked over at Fang, with an unmistakable expression of 'help!' in her eyes.

But Fang did no such thing. Instead, she clenched her fists as tightly as she could and locked her jaw to stop the laughter that was threatening to burst out from her gut. Shaking as she tried to contain herself, she put as innocent a look on her face as she could when Hope looked over at her and said, "Oh, don't look at me, Vanille. He offered it to you. What's your answer going to be now?"

"Fang, stop it!" Vanille cried, a blush springing to her cheeks so red, it almost matched her hair. She looked back down at the silver-haired teen. "H-Hope, you... you really should keep that yourself!"

The boy wasn't a fool, and knew something was up, but the thought of having to eat such a thing overruled all other thoughts for now. "But I thought you really liked this? Please, I insist!"

"Oh I do! It's a delicious dish, but I... I really can't accept it!"

"Why not? Please, Vanille? I... I really want you to have this." The expression on his face begged her to take it from him.

Vanille's mouth opened and closed in protest, but she couldn't quite seem to get the words out of her mouth. Instead, she turned away from the boy, hands over her face, desperately trying to calm her blush down. "H-Hope, you shouldn't say stuff like that! Especially not in front of Fang!"

Hope's face crinkled in confusion, and now he looked over at the older woman, who, at the moment, couldn't hold it in for any longer and started to laugh uncontrollably. "Wha... what's going on? Fang? Stop laughing and tell me!"

But Fang was in no state to be telling anyone anything.

"Hope..." Vanille turned back to face the boy, a chagrined expression on her face, "remember when I said that hunting the palarex was a mark of becoming a man for an Oerban boy?"

"... Yes..." Of course he had remembered; it was one of the reasons why he had wanted to do it in the first place.

"Well," Vanille pushed her fingers together awkwardly, "when a boy becomes a man... he... he takes a wife. Giving the proof of his success in the hunt to a girl is... is essentially a demonstration of his manhood and symbol of his desire to court her."

Hope blanched. He almost dropped the tongue in his hand. "W-what?"

"Oh yeah!" Fang managed to recover from her laughter to finally shed some light. She clapped a hand on Hope's shoulder to turn him around, grinning predatorily at him. "And it's pretty ballsy of you to give it to her right in front of me! You think you can provide and protect her better than I can?"

Telling a girl you wanted to court her in front of her family was essentially challenging them for her hand in marriage. Normally, the girl's father or older brother would take the challenge, and test the boy for his worthiness, but since Vanille had neither, Fang came the closest.

Now the silver-haired teen's eyes threatened to fall out of his head. Fang advanced menacingly on him, smiling toothily as she cracked her knuckles and shook out her shoulders. He backpedaled. "F-Fang! I'm sorry! It was a mistake! I didn't know! I would never! You know I'd never...! Oh god, please don't hurt me!" He threw his hands up in front of his face as Fang made a fist, and pulled it back.

But the punch never came. Instead, Fang reached out and ruffled his hair, pulling him down under her other arm to noogy him. "Hah! You ve still got ten years before you're good enough for Vanille, kid!"

"Aaah, leggo! Leggo!"

Eventually, Fang did, after Vanille gave her a smack upside the head, and they managed to share the laugh. The tongue was put into someone's pouch; Vanille promised she'd prepare it right and serve it to everyone for dinner. They prepared the rest of the palarex, and began walking back to camp.

Hope rubbed the back of his head. He was walking beside Fang, while Vanille was a couple feet in front of them. "Y-you know, Fang," he said. "For a moment there, I thought you might have actually been serious."

Fang laughed lightly. "Really? Now why would you think that?"

"Well," Hope laughed sheepishly. "I mean, I thought you might have been the jealous, possessive, no-one-mess-around-with-my-girlfriend type, you know."

Fang laughed again, although there was a slightly confused expression on her face. "What are you talking about?"

"You know," Hope shrugged. "Some guys can't take it when someone else hits on their girlfriend, you know? But don't worry. I..." there was a hint of sadness in his smile. "I really like Vanille, but I know she's with you."

The Pulsian hunter stopped walking, a quizzical expression on her face. "Wow, Hope, I know you're supposed to be a kid and all, but hasn't anyone ever talked to you about the birds and the bees before?"

Hope blinked. "What do you mean?"

Fang couldn't believe she was having this conversation. Geez, did they teach kids in Cocoon anything practical? "Vanille and I aren't together. Hello, we *are* both girls, you know."

The expression on Hope's face grew more confused. "Yeah... so?"

* * *

"... so anyway," Fang finished, "that's what prompted the afternoon inquisition. I didn't think Hope knew what he was talking about, what with him still being a kid and all, so I thought I'd confirm it." That she had also wanted to confirm the soldier's opinion on the matter, she didn't say; Lightning's casual acceptance had given Fang no clue as to what the soldier personal inclinations were.

Lightning hid a rare smile behind a hand. "Why didn't you say anything at dinner? I think Sazh and Snow would have really enjoyed that story."

Fang shrugged in non-committal. The truth was, the silver-haired teen had begged her not to say anything to anyone - he'd never hear the end of it from Snow if she had. She felt a little bad about betraying his confidence to Lightning, but, as she gazed at the mirth on the normally stalwart soldier's face, Fang felt a smile creeping onto her own.

It had been worth it to see Lightning smile. She'd make it up to the teen somehow.

Presently, Lightning shook the last vestiges of mirth from her lips, even as she said, "Still, an antelope's tongue? No offense, but that's pretty gross. On Cocoon, you'd give the girl a ring."

"Hey, have some respect for a warrior's custom," Fang scoffed. "You didn't think it was gross at dinner! As I recall, you didn't disagree when Snow said it was the most delicious thing he'd had since coming to Gran Pulse! Besides, anyone can buy jewelry, but risking your life for the hunt, and then presenting the finest of the spoils to a girl? Now that's a statement!"

Lightning smirked. "You're actually pretty old-fashioned, aren't you?"

Fang snorted. "Only about the important things."

They sat in companionable silence after that, gazing out at the stars. In truth, Fang had been lost in her own thoughts before Lightning had joined her, and those thoughts came unbidden back to her.

... had women been allowed to marry on Gran Pulse... would she be with Vanille now?

It was a bit of a surprise when she heard her very thought being echoed from the lips of her companion.

"... Fang?"

"Hmm?"

"If... if women had been allowed to marry each other in your village." Lightning's voice was strangely soft. "Would you have... you know... 'given your palarex' to Vanille?"

Fang felt something uncomfortable twist in her stomach. She turned a little to look at Lightning out of the corner of her eyes. Truth be told... Fang wasn't sure herself. She wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she wanted to pursue that line of thought, so this was probably a good time to crack a joke - knock the soldier back with a flirt or a tease or something - 'nah_, but then I couldn't marry you, yeah?'_ and leave it at that... but something about the vulnerability on Lightning's face told her she would regret doing so for the rest of her days.

So instead, she turned away from Lightning and sighed. It was hard enough to try to understand one's heart by one's self; harder still to try to articulate while doing so.

Once upon a time...

... once upon a time, they had only had each other. Once upon a time, Fang couldn't imagine there being anyone more important to her than Vanille. Once upon a time, Fang had sacrificed her feelings for Vanille's happiness, and then Vanille had sacrificed her happiness for Fang's feelings, and what could that had been but love? Once upon a time, Fang felt that as long as Vanille was okay, it didn't matter what happened to her, or the world, or anyone or anything for that matter.

But that was once upon a time ago.

Now, she and Vanille had so much more than just each other.

A new family.

Not just Vanille, but if anything were to happen to any one of them, Fang wasn't sure she could take it. Especially if anything were to happen to-

"You can be with her now, you know."

Fang blinked, not expecting an interruption, not expecting an interruption at that particular thought junction point, and certainly, not expecting *those words* as an interruption at that particular thought junction point. She turned to look at the other woman uncomprehendingly.

The vulnerability that had made Fang's heart ache had left Lightning's face, though there were still traces of fondness on her countenance. "You can be with her now. You may not have been able to be together in Oerba, but... but you're not in Oerba anymore. And I know none of us will care. Heck," there was a strange quirk at the edge of her lips. "We could throw you a ceremony if you want?"

Fang stared at Lightning feeling suddenly lost. Fang knew that the soldier was simply trying to encourage her, was going out of her way to be *nice* to her. Lightning couldn't have known how her words just then had felt like a knife in Fang's gut.

After a moment, Fang cracked a small smile. It took every ounce of her willpower not to run behind a verbal defense barrier, not to tease or make a crack. To leave her words sincere. "Appreciated it," she said weakly. "But... it's not quite as simple as that."

She bit her lip, warring with her heart and willing her lips to just be able to find the right words. "I love Vanille, but... well, it's more complicated than that."

Lightning's eyebrows lifted. At that moment, the vulnerability came back onto her face, and Fang was suddenly glad to be sitting down, for the strength had left her knees.

She tried to get the words out. She really tried.

_It's not just Vanille I love, you know._

But they just didn't quite make it.

... and yet... some sort of understanding must have made it over, because, even though Lightning got up to leave after the extended silence signaled that Fang was not ready to say more, before she left, she laid a hand on Fang's back gently, and said softly, "... I know."

And then she left Fang to continue her shift.

Fang watched Lightning leave, and then closed her eyes, cursing her own weakness under her breath.

* * *

**Author's notes and omake:**

**Thanks for reading!**

The next chapter, Chapter 3, is also part III.2. It is set post-game. Lightning X Fang.

cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

**OMAKE 1: The best part of a palarex - part 1**

[HOPE has just finished bringing down the palarex, and VANILLE has handed him her knife]

VANILLE: Oh, wow, good job, Hope!

HOPE: blushing Thanks, Vanille! I couldn't have done it without you!

VANILLE: Quick, cut off its testicles!

HOPE: WHAT?

VANILLE: It's the best part!

* * *

**OMAKE 2: The best part of a palarex - part 2**

[EVERYONE is seated around the camp for the dinner that Vanille has made]

SNOW: [tearing into the meal with the frenzy of a starving grizzly-bear] Oh, wow, this is delicious, Vanille! What is it?

HOPE: [interrupting VANILLE] Don'taskyoudon'twanttoknow!

SAZH: [looks at the AUTHOR] I can't believe the only screen time you're giving Snow and I is for *this*.


	10. Ch 10 I 3 When They were Adults

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 10: (I.3) When They Were Adults  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
February 8 - March 8, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Pre-game. Important events in Fang & Vanille's lives before the beginning of the end.

Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

When Vanille was sixteen and Fang was eighteen, they were reminded that life could be cruel.

Up until that year, despite the tragedies that had befallen their early childhood, life was generally good. They were both out of school, and could provide for themselves easily. Fang was widely acknowledged as the best hunter in the village, while Vanille was apprenticing as a healer at the hospital. The chaotic hormones of two years earlier had largely passed, in themselves, as well as in their peer group (well, more or less, anyway).

Everyone was growing up; it was important to start planning for the future after all. For boys, chasing after girls was still fine and all, but now, it was no longer chasing for the sake of chasing. Now, they were chasing with _*intent*_.

For Vanille, this meant that the majority of her suitors from a couple years ago were now firmly cemented as friends as opposed to potential husbands. She still had a handful of smitten young men at her beck and call, but it was becoming clear that Oerba Sora Donda, the boy who's blood had saved her when she was ten, was the most serious contender for her affections.

As for Fang, male interest by this point presented a bit of a headache. Being something of a superstar in Oerba meant that she got attention - a _*lot*_ of attention. Every guy with half an iota of ambition in his mind was trying to court her.

She was the last Yun, after all.

Shouldn't her priority be on re-building her clan, before she took Fal'Cie Anima's trials? Wouldn't it be a horrible tragedy if her bloodline was lost? Wouldn't he make the perfect candidate to father her children? Come on, couldn't she relax that silly rule of hers - that he'd have to be her equal in combat and the hunt for her to consider him? If she kept insisting on that, she'd _*never*_ find someone good enough for her! Look, he didn't even care if she had girlfriends on the side; how understanding was that!

To make matters worse, the head priest of Fal'Cie Anima's temple actually subscribed to this thinking! He once told her, attempting to be kind and fatherly, but only coming off as infuriating, that so long as he was head priest, he would personally ensure she didn't passed Fal'Cie Anima's trials until she had produced a successor _(so, not to worry, Child. The Yun will not end with you)._

Fang's response was to soundly beat the _*stuffing*_ out of the head priest's retainers (it not being her style to pummel defenseless old men), while insinuating improprieties against the head priest's mother and a gorilla which must have been the cause of the priest's complete lack of intelligence.

That... hadn't made her very popular with the Temple, and for several years, Fang was banned from taking Fal'Cie Anima's trials (indeed, forbidden from even *approaching* the temple) completely.

Vanille, if questioned, would admit that she wasn't at all upset with this turn of events at all, but she was careful not to bring this up in front of Fang.

* * *

In the spring of that year, Fang left with several friends - Donda, Leiz and Tombas - on a trading expedition to Paddra. They were gone for roughly two weeks, and were now returning.

"So what do you think?" Leiz asked Tombas, grinning.

Tombas thought about this. "Hmm. 'Fang-Dondy', unless she sees the robot first, in which case... actually, no, even if she does see the robot, it's gonna be 'Fang-Dondy'."

Leiz laughed. "Alright. Ten gil says it's 'Dondy-Fang'."

Fang raised a questioning eyebrow as she looked back at the two men walking just behind her and Donda. "What are you two talking about?"

"We're betting to see who's name Vanille calls first," Leiz replied. He put his fists just under his chin and bat his eyelashes, doing his best high pitched squeal. "Aaah! Dondy! Fang! You're back! What took you so long?"

Donda rolled his eyes. "Grow up, you two." Then he paused, as he looked at the box he was carrying. "... it better be 'Dondy-Fang'. This thing cost a bloody fortune!" He muttered under his breath.

"Why'd you buy that thing anyway?" Fang asked. "If you want her to commit, you should have just hunted the palarex."

"You make it sound like that's easy to do, Fang." Donda retorted. "Besides, I don't think Vanille's ready to get that serious yet. And I don't particularly want to have to challenge you for her hand."

"Hey, you're a better man than those other idiots," Fang winked. "I'd go easy on you."

Donda gave Fang a hooded glare. "No, you wouldn't."

"You're right, I wouldn't." Fang laughed. She looked back at Leiz and Tombas. "So what are you two going to do? Get some quality time in with the Missus?"

"You better believe it!" Leiz replied enthusiastically. He elbowed Tombas in the gut. "Gotta make a playmate for yours and Schala's little one! How old is Toby now?"

"Eighteen months." Tombas replied proudly. He did some math in his head. "So if you and Shayla get busy tonight, that means he'll have a friend by the time he's... oh, a little over two years? Hey, that's a similar age difference to us!" He elbowed Leiz back. "Get on it!"

"Oh, I don't need you to tell me that!" Leiz sniggered. "Man, when I get home, I'm gonna take Shayla and I'm gonna-"

"Hey, stop that." Donda interrupted. "We've a lady in our presence."

"Like Fang counts!" Leiz scoffed. "You know she's gonna be getting just as busy, right, Fang?" He sniggered again. "Who're ya bedding with tonight?"

"Even if I was, I wouldn't be telling you," the lone woman in the group replied coolly.

"Aaah, spoil sport! Come on, Fang! Give us married folk a chance to live vicariously! *You* gotta give us some details! We know Donda ain't gonna be getting laid anytime soon."

Fang gave the young man beside her a toothy smile. "He better not be."

Donda gave Fang a dark look.

Soon, the village came into view. Leiz and Tombas left Fang and Donda to return to their own homes. The young man and woman continued on their way to Fang's and Vanille's home in silence. When that silence stretched on, Fang sighed. "Alright, out with it, Donda. What's bothering you?"

"... it's nothing."

"Your balls it's nothing."

The young man sighed, and stopped walking. Fang stopped too, turning back to look him in the eye.

Donda's gaze was firm. "Look. Leiz is going to lose his money; it's going to be 'Fang-Dondy'. You come first, me second. But, I promise you this, Oerba Yun Fang, it is _*not*_ always going to be that way. One day, Vanille's going to look at me, and she _*won't*_ be thinking of you."

Fang blinked. And then she smiled, not unkindly. She clapped Donda on the back. "You know I wouldn't want it any other way."

"Good."

They continued towards Fang and Vanille's home.

When they got there, it was surprisingly empty. "Vanille?" Fang called. "Are you home?"

"Fang," Donda said, pointing at a piece of paper on the table. "There's a note."

_'Schala's hurt.'_

Reading this, Fang and Donda traded an ominous look, before Donda put his present down, and the two of them rushed over to Tombas and Schala's house.

They burst inside, and Fang could hear soft crying she instantly recognized as Vanille's. They made their way over to the bedrooms, and found Vanille struggling to contain her tears just outside the bedroom door.

"Vanille!"

Their sudden entrance prompted Vanille to start with surprise. "Fang? Dondy?" She asked with a small, sad voice. And then the surprise left her face, leaving only sorrow. She sobbed. Wordlessly, she reached out for them.

Donda quickly cut in front of Fang, making it to Vanille first, and wrapped his arms around the small woman, murmuring softly. Fang felt a flare of jealous anger in her heart, but she quickly quashed it (or, at least, attempted to). Wordlessly, she walked up to the embracing pair, crumpled on the floor, and put a hand on top of Vanille's head.

It took a long time, but eventually, Vanille stopped crying.

"There was an accident two days ago. Schala was out in the fields with Tobi. There... there was a wyvern." Vanille said brokenly. "I... I tried to help her... got her to the hospital... but... it doesn't look good. We set her home this morning... there's nothing else we can do..."

The blood left Fang's face. She closed her eyes.

Life was hard, and villagers died all the time from various attacks. A month without a life lost due to misfortune was rare. But this... this was the first one in their circle of friends.

"Vanille, baby," Donda said softly. "Where's Tombas?"

Vanille swallowed, and buried her face into Donda's neck. "He left!" She cried.

Fang boggled. "What do you mean, he left?"

"He just... took off! He was here, and I told him what happened and then he just took off! Leiz went after him! He just... he took one look at Schala, and then took off!" Vanille choked on another sob. "He didn't even look at Tobi..."

The silence amongst the friends was deafening, until Fang looked at the bedroom door and softly asked, "... is Schala inside?"

Vanille nodded. "With Shayla, and Tobi." She swallowed and looked like she wanted to cry again. "We brought her home because Master said," she was referring to the doctor she was apprenticing from, "Master said that short of Fal'Cie intervention, there's no hope..."

Fang blinked as a puzzle piece fell into its place in her mind. "Were those her exact words?"

Vanille nodded.

Fang closed her eyes, feeling her heart fall into her stomach. When she opened them, she could see Donda looking up at her questioningly, even as he stroked the back of Vanille's head soothingly. "I know where Tombas went."

Quietly, Donda got Vanille to her feet and the three of them went inside the bedroom. The two women in the room looked up, hope on their faces quickly dashed when they realized it was not whom they wanted to see.

"Hello, Fang, Donda," Schala greeted weakly from the bed. She was clearly heavily medicated and pale as death. Shayla sat beside the bed in a chair, holding Tobi, who had cried himself into exhaustion and was fast asleep in Shayla's arms.

"... Schala." Fang said softly, quietly coming to the bedside of the woman who'd helped to raise her - raise all of them. She held one of the woman's hands in her own. Donda didn't approach the bed, as he was still holding onto Vanille, who looked like she would crumple to the ground without the support.

"I'm afraid I was a little careless," Schala said softly, an apologetic look on her face.

"You know you have nothing to apologize about," Fang said softly. She swallowed. "Schala, hang in there. Tombas will be back. He's gone to get... help."

Schala smiled weakly. She knew she was beyond help, they both did, but she didn't feel the need to say so out loud.

Less than an hour later, Fang was proven right.

Tombas strode quickly into the bedroom, Leiz behind him. Though he wore exactly the same clothing, and had exactly the same features as the man whom Fang had travelled to and from Paddra with just hours earlier, he clearly was no longer the confident young man he had been that morning.

Ignoring everyone else in the room, he quickly approached the bedside, kissing his wife on the forehead. "Schala, I'm back," he said softly. "Everything's going to be alright."

Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled upon seeing him. "Tombas!" She said weakly, but happily. "Where did you go?"

His only answer was to smile sadly, even as he kissed her softly once more. "Everything's going to be okay now. Watch." He put his hand on the blankets overtop of Schala's lower abdomen. And then, he said a single word.

"Curaja."

A soft green light emitted from his palm, and gently wrapped around the prone woman's body. The light seemed to pulsate once, and then faded. When the light died down, the color had returned to Schala's skin. Schala blinked slowly once, twice, and then a brilliant smile split her face. She threw her hands around Tombas's neck, weeping tears of relief. "A miracle! Fal'Cie Anima has granted us a miracle!" She cried.

But Fang knew better. The Fal'Cie did not grant miracles. She had seen the price that Tombas had agreed to pay for the magic. Just before Schala had covered it with her arms in an embrace, on the back of Tombas's neck, was a small black brand made of a series of intricately interlocking arrows.

* * *

Tombas died three months later. He did not care to complete his focus, he only wanted to spend his short remaining days with his wife and baby boy. The family was inseparable, even when he spent a little bit of his remaining time at Oerba's hospital, performing various cure-based spells for those injured and awaiting recovery there.

It was never his intention to become Cie'th. He had planned to kill himself before that happened, but towards the end, his brand progressed so quickly and unexpectedly, he hadn't been able to act in time.

Fang killed the monster he became within hours of his turning.

Schala thanked her.

That night, for the first time ever, Vanille had to comfort Fang.

* * *

It was late. Fang, Leiz and Donda hadn't returned yet from their horrible task. Vanille and Shayla were waiting on Shayla's front porch. They had been at Schala's up until an hour ago, but the widow had kindly asked them for some privacy.

Eventually, they spotted a couple of forms walking back towards the house.

It was Leiz and Donda. They looked... terrible.

Leiz didn't say anything to Vanille; barely even acknowledge her existence. He simply took his wife's hand and lead her into their house, locking the door behind him.

Vanille knew what the newly married couple would be up to.

While some may think it disrespectful to indulge in such activities so soon after the loss of a loved one, in Oerba, it was inevitable, and almost expected. When confronted so brutally by the fragility of life, men, especially young men, were reminded that any day now, the same could happen to them, and that they had certain duties to perform to ensure the survival of their family line.

Donda quietly took Vanille's hand, and lead her back to her home.

As they walked in silence, Vanille snuck several glances at the young man (though he no longer seemed all that young) at her side, the young man whom had always been close by her, if not directly at her side. His purple-black eyes were unreadable.

Vanille could only imagine what was going through Donda's mind. He hadn't yet presented her with a palarex... but she knew it was his intention to.

What would she do if he went out on a hunt tomorrow, and just didn't come back?

She thought back to Leiz and Shayla, and what they were doing right now...

... was she ready? Oh, Goddess, she didn't know...

They stood awkwardly in front of the house, not quite able to look at it, or each other, before Vanille came to a decision, and strengthened her resolve. Gently, she put her hands on either sides of Donda's face, and lifted his gaze so that she could look him in the eye.

And Vanille asked, softly, knowing exactly the full extent of the permission in her words, "... do you want to come in?"

Emerald green eyes gazed deeply into deep amethyst ones, so very, very dark with sorrow.

Donda didn't say anything for a long time.

And then, finally, he sighed, reaching up to hold one of Vanille's hands still cupping his face. "No. I think... Fang will need you tonight. She... she ended up having to do it. Leiz and I... we couldn't."

Vanille's eyes widened. The full extent of the permission in _*his*_ words, echoed inside her head.

_~... Fang...~_

Donda kissed her on the cheek, and then headed off home.

Vanille stood there, alone, outside of her and Fang's home, for a long time, suddenly lost, and confused and _*scared*_ and not quite sure what to do.

_~... Fang...~_

Swallowing back the lump in her throat, Vanille finally turned to look at her home, and took a trembling step towards it.

The house was dark when Vanille entered, but there was just enough light streaming in through the windows for her to see.

She found Fang in their bedroom, sitting on her bunk, facing away from the door. Fang had pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Vanille could not remember ever seeing Fang in such a small, timid position before.

"It's me," Vanille said softly.

Silence answered her. And then, came Fang's voice. "... are you sure you should be here right now?" Fang asked softly.

And the tremble in Fang's voice told Vanille that yes, of course, right now, at this moment, there was absolutely _*nowhere*_ else she should be.

Quietly, Vanille padded across the room and climbed onto the bed, folding her legs underneath her. She wrapped her arms around Fang's middle and laid her cheek against Fang's back.

The tall woman's (right then, she seem like but a girl) body was still. She wasn't shaking, she wasn't crying, she was just... still. But holding her, Vanille could tell that Fang's heart was broken and she was bitterly lamenting. She was crying for Tombas. She was crying for Schala and Tobi. She was crying for all of them and the loss of simple, happier days.

And Vanille's heart broke too.

She tugged insistently at Fang's shoulder until the tall woman turned to face her. Fang's eyes were filled with enough sorrow to last a lifetime though they hadn't yet seen two decades.

Vanille placed trembling hands on the sides of Fang's face and kissed her on the mouth, and then her cheeks, and her eyes and her forehead and her throat before coming back to her mouth. The kiss was long and deep and only ended with a choked sob.

They rested their foreheads against each other.

"... I love you." Vanille whispered softly. "You know that, right? I'll always love you, no matter what you have to do."

Fang nodded silently.

Vanille pulled Fang's head to her chest, and cradled her there for the rest of the night.

* * *

When Vanille was eighteen and Fang was twenty, they became L'Cie.

Oerba's hunters had gathered for the hunt of the palarex. The herd's migratory path would bring it closer to Oerba than it had ever come before, and there were many clans keen on cementing marriages.

Donda finally managed to bag himself one of the beasts. As he severed and lifted the tongue up into the air, Fang couldn't help but feel a twinge of... something... in her heart.

Of course, she was happy for him, and for Vanille. With the palarex successfully hunted, Donda would finally be able to propose to Vanille. He still had to challenge Fang to prove that he'd be able to take care of the girl as well as her family could, but that would only be a formality. It was high time Vanille got married, and Fang wasn't going to stand in her way.

On the other hand, however, Fang couldn't help but also feel and acute sense of... loss.

This would be it. With Vanille safely provided for, there really wasn't anything keeping Fang from taking Fal'Cie Anima's trials anymore. Well, there was still that annoying issue of the head priest's prejudice against her, but the old man was really no more than a figure head by now. Most of the politics in the village were done by the younger priests, and they had no problems with Oerba Yun Fang attempting the trials.

The Pulsian hunter shook her head, trying to clear it of its more negative thoughts. Forcing a smile onto her face, she clapped Donda on the back in congratulations. "Took you long enough, Donda!" She laughed. "For a moment there, I thought poor Vanille was going to become an old maid!"

Donda opened his mouth to shoot back an acidic reply, but he was interrupted by the sound of horrific, horrific screeching in the air.

Fang's eyes widened as her blood froze in her veins.

She knew that sound.

It had haunted her nightmares since she was seven years old.

As one with all the other hunters present, Fang looked up, and, sure enough, straight out from her earliest nightmares, was the Cocoonian Fal'Cie that had decimated Oerba so many years before.

It was colossal, vaguely mechanical, and easily dwarfed several oretoise put together with immense claws. As it swooped down, a beam of energy shot forth from its mouth, scorching the land and setting fire to the plains.

The palarex were panicked, galloping this way and that in their attempt to flee, but they themselves were the target of the beast's thievery this time. Those massive claws came down and tore up a section of land and everything upon it, including most of the palarex herd and several hunters.

The world seemed to slow down to a crawl. Fang couldn't seem to control her limbs at all. All she could do was watch, as the monster loomed, shooting energy from its mouth, wreaking devastation across all the lands.

It was like she was seven years old all over again...

... and then, suddenly, she felt something hit her hard in the face.

It was Donda.

"FANG!" He bellowed, hitting her again. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"

And Fang did.

Just like that, the world sped up, and suddenly, Fang found herself in the middle of utter chaos, with whining palarex running this way and that, and hunters screaming, some trying to flee, others trying to help the injured.

No one was trying to mount a counter attack against the Cocoonian Fal'Cie. They were all just waiting for its fury to end, for it to claim what it had come for, and go back to its den in the sky.

But it would not. Not this time. Not if Fang had anything to say about it.

Eyes narrowing, Fang grabbed her lance from her back.

How many years had she dreamed of this, of meeting the destroyer of her clan?

Everything turned red as she screamed in outrage, and ran at the Fal'Cie.

With no need for thought, she ran, easily dodging over falling boulders, man and beast. The Fal'Cie was getting ready to launch into the air; she had to make it to the beast before it fled.

It leapt into the sky a second before Fang did. Rock and boulder fell from the beast's claws, and Fang was able to use these as a ladder of sorts, jumping up and up on the falling debris like a disconnected staircase. She took one final, mighty leap and managed to clutch onto one of the Cocoonian Fal'cie's many talons, hauling herself up. Jumping and leaping, she struggled her way up the massive beast's arm and shoulder until she was mere meters from the monster's head.

With a loud war cry, Fang leapt into the air, twisting her body into a highwind attack, and rammed her spear directly into one of the Cocoonian Fal'Cie's eyes, striking it dead on.

It gave a howl of pain and fury, dropping everything in its claws as it tried to get the annoyance out of its eye.

Fang hung on for dear life.

The hunters on the ground scrambled to get out of the way of falling rock, land and beast; many of them falling from too high a distance to survive the impact.

Still clinging to the Fal'Cie, Fang watched in horror as the monster began to lay waste to the land, firing shot after shot from the energy canon in its mouth in blinded fury.

"Stop it!" She screamed, her voice lost in the wind, even to her own ears. "St-!" And she lost her grip on the monster, finding herself in free fall.

She hit the ground roughly, several dead palarex sheltering her fall. The wind was completely knocked from her lungs.

There was nothing she could do anymore, nothing anyone could do anymore.

Eventually, after exhausting its energy supply, the Cocoonian Fal'Cie scooped what it could carry with its claws once more - a fraction of what it had initially came for and mostly of dying palarex and rubble, before taking off to return to its den of terror in the sky.

The hunters remained dazed on the ground. Eventually, they recovered their wits. They had lost several men, and the injured vastly outnumbered the healthy. Donda managed to weakly make his way to Fang, helping her up. "... are you alright?" He asked.

Fang's only answer was to spit out a mouthful of blood, though she did gratefully accepted the potion he handed to her.

They gathered their things, and started back to the village. No one else would speak to Fang, but she could hear the accusation in their silent eyes.

It was she who had pissed the thing off. If she hadn't attacked it, maybe it would have simply taken the palarex and fled.

If it hadn't been for her, maybe so many wouldn't have died.

* * *

When the injured hunters managed to hobbled their way back to the village, they were greeted with chaos and cries of terror.

Wordlessly, Fang and Donda sought Vanille, and found her standing outside the orphanage they'd grown up in, ready to defend its occupants with her binding rod clutched tightly in her hands and absolute terror in her eyes.

She saw them, and cried out for them. "Donda! Fang!"

She collapsed into Donda's arms when he and Fang found her.

"Vanille, are you alright?" Fang cried.

The redhead nodded weakly. "Y-yeah... they didn't come this way..."

"What happened?"

"W-we saw the Fal'Cie from Cocoon," Vanille trembled. "People panicked. They were telling everyone to go to the temple for safety, but... but the people who got there... they started turning into Cie'th!"

Fang's face grew ashen while Donda gapped. "What?" He breathed. "Why? Why would Fal'Cie Anima _*DO*_ that?"

_~Because he's a coward,~_ Fang thought bitterly. _~The Fal'Cie do NOT protect us! Not without a price!~_

"How many?" Fang whispered. "And where are they now?"

Vanille shook her head. "I don't know!"

Fang grasped Donda's arm tightly. "Look after her." She ordered, even as she grabbed his staff from him.

She took off towards Fal'Cie Anima's temple.

* * *

The village mourned. They had lost many good men in the Cocoonian Fal'cie's attack in the field, and in the resulting chaos that erupted in the village there after, many more had been injured or lost.

Roughly a dozen souls, seeking protection at Anima's temple, had unexpectedly been made L'Cie by the patron of Oerba - given powers to defend themselves, the head priest tried to explain to the angry villagers, just before he was lynched, but the majority of them had been so shocked with what happened, they went Cie'th right away.

Shayla was amongst those, and she had still been holding onto her son when it had happened. The child sustained a broken arm in the chaos that erupted thereafter. That would heal but it was unknown if the child's mind ever would.

Leiz went mad with grief. His screams and bellows were so terrible, they had to put him down before he caused injury to himself and others. His last words, before his consciousness was taken from him, were cruel.

"Why was it her?" He spat at Fang. "Why wasn't it you? Weren't you the one who was supposed to save us all? Weren't you supposed to have the honor of becoming Anima's L'Cie? This wouldn't have happened if you'd just done what you said you would years ago!"

Fang knew Leiz didn't mean it. He was not himself.

But that didn't stop those words from hurting.

The only thing that hurt worse was the uncertainty of what was next to come. Who knew when that Cocoonian monster would be back? They hadn't simply let it take from them this time - they had fought back. It might be angry. And who knew what it would be capable of in anger?

The villagers of Oerba decided that they needed action. They got rid of the head priest, and replaced him with a significantly younger man, who promised swift action for the safety of the village.

Fal'Cie Anima's trails, traditionally held once a year and still several months away, would be fast-tracked and held that week.

* * *

"... Vanille?" Fang said softly, finding the other young woman at the orphanage they'd grown up in. "There you are."

Vanille put a finger to her lips. She was in the middle of tucking a young boy in. He was new to the orphanage, as were several others. Given the recent events, Schala had needed help getting the new children adjusted, and so both Fang and Vanille found themselves back at the orphange to assist.

When Vanille was done, they left the bedroom. Vanille let Schala know that she was going for the night and the older woman bid her and Fang goodnight.

They left the orphanage, their home for so many years, and stood in the middle of the street.

Finally, Fang sighed. "Vanille... we need to talk."

Vanille smiled sadly at Fang. "No, we don't. I know what you're going to say." She looked at the ground. "I know what you have to do. And I..." She swallowed. "I won't hold you back. Just... let me go to the temple with you?" Vanille's voice caught. "... to say goodbye?"

Fang gazed sadly down at Vanille - her oldest friend, her only family, her number one, her everything - and idly realized that the little five year old girl she'd first met when she was seven - had grown up into a beautiful, strong woman.

That realization made Fang's heart ache with pride and sorrow. She returned Vanille's sad smile, and nodded.

* * *

The next morning, they went to Fal'Cie Anima's temple. They both held secrets in their hearts from each other, but not really. It was more like they each had unspoken truths they knew the other knew, and so did not have to recount.

They passed the test of evil and holiness.

They passed the test of weakness and strength.

They passed the test of greed and honor.

When Fang tried to kill Anima, Vanille wasn't altogether surprised. Just worried.

When Vanille offered to become L'Cie in atonement for Fang's crimes, Fang wasn't altogether surprised. Just sad.

They didn't head back to the village after that. They set out straight away to tear down the sky.

"... what did you tell Donda?" Fang asked, only once.

"... that I loved you more." Vanille replied reluctantly. "That I'd always love you more."

Fang's brow crinkled. "... Vanille," she said softly. "You didn't have to say it to him like that."

"... I didn't want him to wait for me." Vanille explained. "He... he would have otherwise. I didn't want him to."

They were silent for a while, and then Fang sighed, and pulled Vanille into a hug. "Well, you'll always have me." She promised.

Vanille sniffled, and nodded.

* * *

Author's Notes and Not-Quite-Omake.

And that wraps up pre-game stuff! There's a couple more during-game chapters still to come, which will explore the complexities between Fang-Lightning-Vanille, but we'll be generally focusing on post-game from now on!

So I know you guys like omake, but for this chapter, rather than omake, I wanted to share a deleted scene that I had written. This was meant to be a separate scene in the middle of the chapter, between Fang's 18th and 20th year. I was pretty happy with it - it was fun and playful, but ultimately, it just didn't feel *right* in this chapter, and I decided to cut it out.

Because it *is* fun and lite, I still want to share it, so here you go!

cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

[DELETED SCENE]

When Vanille was seventeen and Fang was nineteen, Vanille lost her virginity. Fang was ready to force a shotgun wedding on her and Donda.

One day, Vanille woke up wondering why Fang was hogging all the blankets; Fang was usually a more considerate bedmate.

As she cracked open her eyes, she was greeted by the unfamiliar sight of short black hairs sticking out of a chin. Vanille frowned and couldn't help but think that Fang could really use a shave.

She reached for the blankets which had been tossed aside and pulled them overtop of herself, snuggled back onto the broad chest she had been lying on. She tried to ignore the irritation of that scratchy chin against her forehead.

_Wait a minute,_ Vanille's brain told her. _Since when did Fang have stubble?_

With that thought, Vanille's brain finally turned fully on, and her eyes snapped open. "Goddess!" She cursed, bolting upright and smacking the top of her head against the bottom of the bunk above her. She winced, grabbing her head. "Ow!"

Her bedmate snorted awake. "Huh? What?" Donda groaned while looking wildly around. His eyes eventually found Vanille's form and he blinked confusedly. "Vanille?" He voiced croakily. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here, what are _*YOU*_ doing here?" Vanille cried. "This is my bed!"

Sleep quickly left Donda's eyes as the implication of the redhead's terrified words hit home. Wordlessly he looked down at his own body to confirm the suspicion that... yes, indeed, he was naked.

Then, he woodenly looked over at Vanille.

Vanille mimicked Donda's actions and realized she was also similarly unclothed. A wicked blush stretched across her cheeks and she hastily covered herself with the blankets. Her brain idly wondered why she bothered; her memories advised that Donda had already become quite intimately familiar with her body the previous night.

For his part, Donda caught the embarrassed blush on Vanille's cheeks and hastily looked away, even as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

They remained that way, awkward, for a few more moments, each trying to process the memories of the night before. Finally, Donda spoke.

"Um... Vanille...?" He said slowly.

Vanille looked over at him.

"Um... I... uh..." He obviously wasn't sure where to start. "About last night... I... just wanted to say... um... it was..." He sighed, and grabbed Vanille's hands, holding them with gentle firmness. "Dammit, I'm going to sound like an idiot anyway I say it, so here goes. Van, it was bloody fantastic, and I don't regret it. I love you, and I'll take full responsibility for whatever happens next. I'll do whatever you want."

His words, though awkward and inelegant, were still heartfelt, and that was what was important.

Vanille couldn't help but give him a small smile. "I... don't regret it either, Dondy." she admitted shyly, that blush still on her cheeks. "It... was good for me too."

"Was it?" The boy instantly brightened.

Vanille couldn't help but smile. She leaned forward to give him a peck on his lips, but as she did so, Bhakti bobbled into the room on his short mechanical legs. 'Warning!' The robotic pet said, 'Warning! It is 9 o'clock! Warning! It is 9 o'clock!'

"What!" Vanille cried, directly into Donda's puckered lips, startling him. "Donda - it's almost nine! Fang'll be home at any minute!"

Donda's eyes became the size of saucers and he whipped his head around to look at Bhakti. The robot flashed a small holographic clock at him. "!#$#!" He cried, desperately trying to scramble off the bed. "Where are my pants? Where are my pants?" He only succeeded in tangling himself up in the sheets and falling off the small bed with a thud.

"I don't know! I think I threw them somewhere over there last night!" Vanille cried, pointing at Fang's bed.

Until she realized she was pointing at her own bed.

Which meant that... "Donda!" Vanille cried. "We did it on Fang's bed!"

Donda stared up at Vanille from his position on the floor, horror clear on his face. "... I'm ." He deadpanned.

"Yeah. You are."

The naked couple whirled their attention towards the sound of the new voice.

Fang stood at the bedroom door, arms folded across her chest, an expression of supreme pissed-off-ness on her face.

[break]

It was not often that the Oerban morning began with screams of murder and a naked man being defenestrated from a second story window followed by the woman who had tossed him.

Donda managed to cat roll to safety and hastily scrambled to his feet just as Fang stabbed her bladed lance into the ground where his head had been but a moment before.

"You no good son-of-a-whore wanker!" Fang bellowed, swinging her lance for blood. "How could you do this to Vanille? I _*trusted*_ you! I'm going to _KILL_ you!"

"Fang, wait! I can explain!" Donda cried. "We love each other!"

"That's not an explanation! That's a jewelry commercial!" Fang roared back, swinging again, causing the man to duck. "If you don't have a palarex tongue somewhere on your person right now, Donda, I swear to Etro, I am going to cut off the appendage most resembling it to use in its place!"

Donda swallowed. "I don't have one yet, but I will! Fang, I swear to Etro, my intentions towards Vanille are honorable! I'm going to hunt the palarex right now, and then we'll get married!"

"You damn straight'll be marrying her!" Fang swung again. "You think I'll let you just have your way with her and just waltz off like tha-aaagh!"

Suddenly, Fang found a series of thin wires wrapped around her legs. With a cry of dismay, she realized that they weren't just around her limbs, but Donda's as well. Those lines quickly tightened, binding them together, tripping them and causing them to fall down in a tangled heap.

"What the - VANILLE!" Fang roared from her position on top of the naked and groaning Donda. She glared over at the younger girl. "What the _*hell*_ are you doing?"

Vanille was standing by the door of their house, pulling her binding rod back, keeping the lines taut. She hadn't had the time to get fully dressed and had only managed to wrap a simple sheet around herself. "Fang, the whole neighborhood can hear you! What are _*you*_ doing?"

"Whaddaya mean what am I doing?" Fang shot back. "I'm defending your honor! He's gotta take responsibility for his actions!"

"Defending my...!" The younger girl gave the older one a flabbergasted look. "Fang, stop being such a hypocrite! I'm not a child anymore, I can take responsibility for my own actions! Did it ever cross your mind that maybe _*I*_ was the one who took advantage of _*him*_?"

For a moment, Fang looked shocked. "Vanille, what are you saying? You're way too young to be-" She didn't get to finish.

"Fang, I'm eighteen years old! How many people had _*YOU*_ slept with by then?"

Fang's left eyebrow twitched spastically. "That's SO different! None of them were-" but her explaining was cut off.

"And _*you*_! Dondy!" Vanille shot the naked man underneath Fang a withering look. "Whatever happened to _'whatever I want'_? Who said anything about marriage? I'm not going to marry you!"

Donda looked almost heartbroken. "You're not?" He asked meekly. "But we..."

"Erm, well, maybe I will marry you one day," Vanille amended hastily, seeing the pain she was causing the young man, "but not yet! I'm... I'm not ready for that yet!"

And with that, she dropped her binding rod, allowing the lines to slacken, before storming back into the house, slamming the door.

Fang and Donda stared at where Vanille had been, stunned, before awkwardly staring at each other.

"..."

"..."

Finally, Donda swallowed and managed to stop sweating bullets. "Fang, I'm sorry. I... I should have had better self control."

Fang continued to glare at Donda before giving an angry huff. "Nah," she finally managed to say, irritably. "Vanille was right, I was being a hypocrite. I sure as hell don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to preaching abstinence, and I know how Vanille can get. It's a miracle you lasted this long courting her. I'm sorry I tried to kill you. I know you'll do good by her."

By then, the rage had left Fang's expression, and the two friends managed to smirk awkwardly at each other.

That is, until Fang felt something twitch against her leg. The smirk on Fang's face quickly evaporated into a look of disgust. "Forget it! Oerba Sora Donda, if that's morning wood, I take it all back! You are a dead man!"

END DELETED SCENE


	11. Ch 11 III 5 Fal'Cie Lindzei

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 11: (III.5) Fal'Cie Lindzei  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
February 23 - March 11, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: Post-game. Now knowing the key to saving Fang and Vanille is to wake the sleeping Maker, Buniberzei, Fang and Lightning set off to accomplish this. They interacting with the various denizens of the Door of Souls, while searching for the lost Vanille.

LIME WARNING: It's probably too flowery to be considered *truly* explicit, but certain mature themes are present in this chapter and are meant for an older teen audience!

Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

A sigh escaped from Lighting's lips as Fang tenderly nibbled along her throat. Lighting wrapped a hand behind Fang's head, digging her fingers encouragingly into the hunter's scalp even as she lifted her head to expose more of her neck for the hunter to sample.

Fang let her trail of kisses meander upon Lightning's collar bone, and then down between Lightning's breasts, savoring the sounds of contentment this elicited from her lover.

Tender hands reacquainted themselves with flesh made glowing warm with need, carefully, thoroughly and lovingly. They had been too long denied their desired, and they were eager to explore those delightful places they had once known. Lightning trembled under Fang's lavish ministrations, strength bleeding from her limbs, thought fleeing from her mind, leaving her filled with naught but aching longing that only Fang's continued touch could both fan and abate, somehow at the same time.

Fang laid claim to Lightning's body as hers once more, triumphing in the rediscovery of favorite locals and actions. She listened thoughtfully to Lightning's wordless responses, revising areas that provided the most intense of reactions, treasuring the sounds of pleasure this awarded her, so long denied to her, driving both of them to arousal's madness.

Lovingly, Fang sent Lightning's feathered sighs into fevered moans and then brought those to the highest of heights, until Lightning found release, and her gasps of exalted rapture echoed in the night.

* * *

Fang gazed down fondly at the pink haired soldier curled up against her side, and idly brushed a piece of hair from Lightning's eyes. She'd watched the soldier sleep almost every night for the last year, ever since she found her consciousness active despite her body being locked in crystal status. Tonight was the first night in a long time Fang remembered that Lightning was sleeping without an expression of sorrow on her features.

Early on in her second crystal status, that sleeping face, so expressively sad, had broken Fang's heart, and she had entered into Lightning's dreams to try to soothe her, but that had only served to set the soldier up for even more devastating disappointment in the mornings. It had been a difficult decision, but Fang had stopped visiting Lightning's dreams, hoping the other woman would heal with time.

Lightning stirred under Fang's gentle touch, but didn't wake up.

As they had laid in post-coital bliss, Lightning had struggled to stay awake. "Go to sleep, Love," Fang had whispered, before winking. "I'll stay up. Technically, it's still my shift."

"... wake me up for mine?" Lightning had replied drowsily.

"Sure," Fang had lied. Like she was going to! She'd done her damndest to absolutely exhaust the soldier after all. She'd be rightly miffed if Lightning didn't at least sleep through the night!

It had been incredibly foolhardy and undisciplined of them to engage in such intimacy, given their current circumstances, but Fang couldn't bring herself to really give a damn.

She thought back to the warnings of the winged figured they'd met that day - the Lusita.

* * *

_'I am of the Lusita,'_ the winged creature said to them, after it had shown them how to called forth their Eidolon armor. _'We are charged with the ferrying of human souls to and from the chaos. When a human soul departs its earthly body, it arrives at the Door of Souls. It is our duty, as Lusita, to find these souls, cleanse them of their memories, and return them to the chaos.'_

The Lusita then showed the two humans a small bluish-green ball of light it had been protecting. It was similar to what the old man Fang and Lightning had seen earlier had become. _'When it is time for a soul to be born in the visible world, we call one forth from the chaos, and deliver it to its new body. Sometimes, this creates an opportunity for a beast from the chaos to follow the soul through to here. That was what happened earlier. Thank you for your assistance in sending it back where it belongs. I must now complete the delivery of this child. As the Door of Souls is a mirror image of the visible world, I must travel to the corresponding location here as where this human child is expected to be born, there.'_

They boggled, startled that the reason that the Door of Soul seemed so similar to Gran Pulse was because it *was* Gran Pulse - or at least, a mirror image of Gran Pulse.

Its business thus concluded with them, the Lusita was ready to go on its way, until Lightning called it back. "Wait!" Lightning said, "could you let us know if you've seen someone similar to us? We're looking for a friend. She's a young woman with red hair in pigtails."

The Lusita shook its head. _'There are not very many departed souls out here on the plains awaiting deliverance to the chaos, and I have seen none others such as yourself, or matching that description.'_

"Huh," Fang frowned. "Alright, thanks. One more thing. Can you tell us what's in that direction?" She pointed in the direction she felt Vanille coming from faintly.

The winged creature looked over in that direction and then its expression darkened considerably. _'The Capital of the Abominable Dead is that way.' It then looked back at Lightning and Fang, and, seeing the confused expressions on their faces, explained, 'not all departed souls are willing to return to the chaos, although that is the natural order of things, and where they will find final peace. Those souls have congregated in an evil, unnatural city, and sought alliances with beasts from the chaos. You would do best to stay away from that place; unspeakable atrocities are committed there.'_

And with that, the Lusita departed.

* * *

After the Lusita had left them, they had continued their way towards Vanille, despite the winged creature's warning. They had encountered the random soul here and there, as well as a couple more Lusita, on route to complete their duties. While they had all regarded them with curious looks, none of those winged creatures had stopped to chat.

They had also come across several more chaotic beasts, but with their new Eidolon armor and weapons, they had been able to dispatch the beasties.

Fang could not quite fathomed what had happened during her first embarrassing battle _(oh Goddess - would she ever live that down?)_; it was like her mind was trying to protect its own sanity by shielding her memory from what she had seen. All she could remember was that whatever she had experienced, she most certainly did *NOT* want to experience it again.

Beyond that, they had not been much else disturbed. The Door of Souls may have been a mirror image of Gran Pulse, but it did not have any of the living creatures that their world did. As such, they probably could have continued on, even after the sun had set, but had decided against it for precaution's sake; the chaotic beasts were easy to spot in the day, but would likely be much harder to avoid at night.

It had been with Lady Luck's grace that Fang had been able to realize that they were in a location they'd previously visited on Gran Pulse, and so, was able to locate the equivalent to a cave they'd once used. Once they'd settled in, Fang had offered to take the first guard shift, letting Lighting rest first and take the second shift.

... yeah, _(really, who were they kidding?)_ that had lasted all of ten minutes.

Fang grinned to herself even as she adjusted her sari - currently doubling as a blanket - to cover Lightning a little further. She bent down to give Lightning's bare shoulder a soft peck. She couldn't quite remember the exact details that had lead to their session of intimacy; all she could really remember was the exquisiteness of their lovemaking.

They had only been intimate once before tonight, and that experience, while powerful in its own right, had been tinged with sadness and bitter sweetness.

Tonight had held none of that and it had made Fang feel like she was flying - still flying, really.

Beside her, Lightning twitched in her sleep. For a moment, Fang thought the other woman was going to wake up, but Lightning only snuggled up closer against Fang's side, causing the hunter to smile broadly.

Fang couldn't help but sigh, feeling more at peace than she had in ages _(literally). _If only she had confirmation of Vanille's safety too - then the moment might have been perfect.

At least, Fang thought, she could still feel her oldest friend's presence, out there somewhere, closer than she had been yesterday, and not in any apparent duress that Fang could feel.

* * *

When the sun came up, Lightning reluctantly roused the sleeping hunter. She felt a little guilty doing so, as her lover _(... did she just think of Fang as her lover?)_ had not rested for very long. Fang had not awaken her for her shift like she said she would, so Lightning had overslept by a couple of hours. When Lightning had woken up by chance, she admonished Fang for the indulgence, and insisted that the hunter get some rest. Though Fang had teased about preferring to continuing their earlier session _(a suggestion to which Lightning *almost* caved), _eventually the soldier got the hunter to see logic, and Fang grabbed a couple hours of shut eye.

The lack of sleep didn't stop Fang from grinning happily as Lightning gently nudged her awake.

"Mmm... good morning, Love," Fang said, yawning. "You know, I could get used to waking up like this." She sat up, and pulled Lightning towards her for a kiss.

For a moment, Lightning wasn't sure how to respond - butterflies suddenly flapped their wings in her stomach. It was one thing to give in to bodily needs, pent up as long as they'd been, and another thing entirely to give affection simply for the sake of giving affection; Lightning wasn't exactly known for being touchy-feely after all. She actually tensed up, just before Fang's lips pressed against hers, but luckily, her heart shooed the butterflies out of her system and slapped her brain for being silly _(really? you're freaking out *now*, after *everything* you've gone through together?)_ and Lightning responded to Fang's affections in kind.

"Hmm... this *is* nice," Lightning admitted drolly, "but I think I'd prefer waking up in a proper bed with sheets and covers myself."

"Wow. I never thought that Lightning Farron could be such a princess," Fang teased. Her back decided to pop loudly in protest as she stretched herself awake. Fang winced. "Ack. Maybe you have a point there."

Lightning cast a simple water spell to allow Fang to clean up with, and after that, they left the cave and continued on their way. Now that they knew that the Door of Souls resembled Gran Pulse, they could point out which direction they'd been heading in - north.

As they jogged, they kept an eye out for any potential foodstuffs. They hadn't eaten the night before, relying on curative spells to keep up their strength. While those magicks could, theoretically, keep regenerating them indefinitely, it wasn't very satisfying for the belly - a life without food, rest and good company wasn't a life at all, really. Just survival.

And on that note, Lightning couldn't help but wonder...

... what would it be like to be with Fang outside of survival mode? Their entire association _(relationship? Could it be called that?), _had been during times of adventure and distress.

What would it be like to have a normal day with Fang?

What would it be like to have a normal *night* with Fang?

"Love?"

Fang's amused voice interrupted Lightning's thoughts. "Hmm?"

"Your ears are going red again."

_~Damn,~_ Lightning thought without any real ire. She couldn't hide *anything* from the Pulsian hunter. "Are you going to point that out every time?"

"I might have to," Fang winked. "If you continue insisting looking as cute as you do, doing so."

Lightning rolled her eyes.

"Well don't hold out on me!" Fang laughed. "What were you thinking about?"

The soldier thought about giving her normal, 'nothing of importance' reply, until she realized something. "... did you just call me 'Love'?"

Fang chuckled. "Uh... I think I've called you that several times now. Don't like it? Prefer 'Sunshine'?"

"No, whatever, it's fine," Lightning replied noncommittally. But she knew that her ears were still red, so the hunter could probably tell that she was actually feeling a silly little thrill.

They continued on a few more moments, before, somewhat surprisingly, Lightning decided to answer Fang's question. "I was... just thinking about last night..." she admitted, a little awkwardly.

Fang's smile could only be described as beaming. "Yeah?"

Lightning could feel a smile threatening to appear on her own face. "Yeah. I was just... wondering if that was a taste of things to come. You know. When this is over. When things are normal."

_~Whatever that was.~_

The hunter slowed to a stop, forcing the soldier to stop too, and turn back to regard her. By this time, the proud smile on Fang's face had softened to a gentle one that was equal parts fond and kind. Fang reached out and brushed a lock of pink hair out of the soldier's eyes.

"You bet your fine ass, 'it's a taste of things to come'. You're not getting rid of me after this is all over." And now a hint of teasing crept into Fang's formerly gentle smile. "Besides... you haven't seen all my tricks yet!"

Despite the teasing, Lightning could tell the other woman had meant what she said. She smirked back. "Yeah, well, neither have you."

"Oooh," Fang pulled Lightning close, looking down at the shorter woman through half-lidded eyes, glimmering with ardor. "Care to give me a preview?"

Standing so close together, Lightning could smell the other woman's scent easily, and her higher mental facilities governing duty and responsibility _(traits that used to come so easily to her - defined her, really!), _threatened to completely walk off the job. Lightning's fingers played with the hairs at the base of Fang's skull _(when had she placed her hands there?). _She couldn't help staring at Fang's bottom lip, even as she chewed at her own while she debated with herself. "... We... shouldn't..." She tried to convince herself. "... still have to find Vanille and all..."

A pang of guilt flittered across Fang's face, followed quickly by undisguised disappointment. She sighed. "Can I have a kiss at least?"

That request, Lightning decided, she could grant.

* * *

They continued onwards in relative silence, picking up speed.

Today was a bit quieter than the previous; they didn't see any more wandering souls, or any Lusita.

And yet, despite this, Lightning couldn't help but feel a sense of anxiety in her stomach, a rumbling of some sort, as though they were in the calm before a storm. A little while after she started feeling this, Fang asked, "... can you feel that?"

"I feel... something." Lightning confirmed. "But I'm not sure what it is."

They stopped moving, and Fang closed her eyes in concentration. Finally, when she opened them, she confirmed, "it's the rumbling in the ground. Like there's a large herd of something moving. And it's coming in our direction."

_~... that's a Pulsian Hunter for you,~_ Lightning thought. "Can you tell what it is? Or how many there are?"

Fang shook her head. "No." She frowned, looking around at their environs. Her frown deepened. "There isn't any cover at all out here. I don't think we can avoid them." She paused. "We should be able to see them pretty soon."

A few minutes later, Fang pointed at the horizon.

Lightning frowned, worry creeping into her heart as the group approached and their features began to be seen. She heard Fang voice the very concerns she felt in her own heart.

"Hey... tell me I'm just imagining this, but doesn't that look like an army of Cie'th to you?"

Lightning nodded grimly. They most certainly did.

"Not that this is my style," Fang continued to say, and Lightning could hear the conflict in her voice. "But there's gotta be at least a hundred of them. Should we make a break for it?"

Lightning thought about this, and shook her head. "If we exhaust ourselves running, we won't be able to put up a good stand."

Fang nodded. "Right." She transformed into her Eidolon armor, even as Lightning changed into hers.

They waited.

As the group approached, Lightning found that she would only make one small alteration to Fang's initial description: the group approaching them weren't *quite* Cie'th. They looked more like men and women who's transformation into Cie'th had been stopped halfway, leaving them as twisted bastardizations of themselves, half human, half monster. Some of them seemed more human than not, others appeared more Cie'th. Some of them marched, other flew, or hopped along, while others still dragged themselves along the ground. The sounds they made, unintelligible groans, wrought with despair, were most definitely the moan of Cie'th. They didn't appear to have retained any semblance of intelligence. Their eyes (those of them that still had them, anyway), were glassy and vacant.

There was only one exception to this.

Several of the half-Cie'th were pushing a large, clear crystal of a man in a standing position. He was the only wholly human looking, non-monstrosity in the entire contingent. He was dressed in purple clothing somehow similar to Fang and Lightning's own Eidolon armor. He had long purple-black hair. His eyes were closed.

Lightning saw Fang tense up out of the corner of her eyes. She looked over at her companion. "What is it?"

"... I... I recognize some of those... those half-Cie'th." Fang finally said, distress clearly evident in her voice.

Lightning raised an eyebrow. "Which ones? Who are they?"

Fang's face was hard. "Do you see the big guy with the brown hair, close to the cage? His name is, or was, Oerba Ledara Leiz. We grew up together. There's a couple more of them I recognize from the village too..."

Lightning frowned. She could see that the other woman was gripping her spear so hard, her knuckles were turning white. She could only guess at what was going through the other woman's mind. "Fang, listen to me. You're not looking at your friend. You're looking at the monster that killed him, okay? *It's* *not* *him.*"

Fang didn't reply for a long time. Finally, she took a deep breath, and twirled around her lance once - a relaxing gesture. "Yeah. You don't have to tell me that." She finally said, her voice tight.

Eventually, the half-Cie'th army reached them, and stopped. The one Fang had pointed out as Oerba Ledara Leiz, stepped forward. He opened his mouth.

"It was foretold that the harbingers of Ragnarok have finally arrived at the Door of Souls." His voice was inhuman, raspy, sounding like the wind, though it also boomed with power and authority. Though his words had not been phrased as a question, it was clear he was demanding them to confirm their identity.

Lightning opened her mouth to speak, but Fang was faster. The Pulsian Hunter took a step forward. "Leiz, is that you?" She shouted.

He didn't respond. Instead, he repeated himself, word for word. "It was foretold that the harbingers of Ragnarok have finally arrived at the Door of Souls."

Lightning's frown deepened, and she traded a glance with Fang.

"Leiz, what happened to you?" Fang shouted again, taking another step forward. "It's me! Fang!"

But he only began again. "It was foretold that the harbingers of Ragnarok-"

_'ONE OF THEM IS RAGNAROK.'_

Lightning reeled when she heard the voice inside her head. Blinking bewilderedly, she tried to figure out where the voice had come from before realizing it was from the man in the crystal.

Evidently, the half-Cie'th's question hadn't been directly at her and Fang.

_'THE OTHER IS ALSO STRONG.'_

Lightning frowned. This could not be good. Instinctively, she closed her hand on her gunblade. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Fang shift her grip on her own weapon.

There was a pause, thick with tension, after that.

And then the half-Cie'th army gave a collective cry - shrill, terrible and inhuman - that could only have meant war.

* * *

_~It's the monster that killed them. It's the monster that killed them. It's the monster that killed them.~_

Fang repeated the mantra over and over in her head, even as she pushed back one of the first monsters whom had reached her, and then brought her lance down. It gave a howl of pain, but continued to come at her.

_~It's the monster that killed them.~_

Cursing, Fang delivered several more direct hits at the enemy, and caste Ruinga. It took several more rounds of this, but eventually, she was able to slice the target clean in half.

_~It's the monster that killed them.~_

It gave a screech of anguish before disintegrating into crystal dust. A small glowing ball of bluish light remained suspended in the air for a moment where the monster had been, before floating down to the ground.

Fang barely had time to contemplate what this meant, as another one was coming at her - she had to duck quickly to avoid the strike. As she did so, she saw that Lightning had launched herself at Leiz.

Distractedly, Fang wondered why her lover was going out of her way to do this (there were many *many* other targets), even though she already knew the answer: Lightning had seen her reaction to seeing her old friend, and wanted to spare her the anguish of having to fight him. Fang supposed she should be feeling grateful for the soldier's consideration, but, to be perfectly honest, she was trying her damndest not to feel anything at all at the moment. If she didn't, she'd be lost.

_~It's the monster that killed them.~_

Forcing herself to calm the hell down, Fang focused on the targets that were directly in front of her, thankful that they were not familiar faces. She tried to think coolly, and analytically about the situation.

Leiz was more than a capable fighter, having trained with Fang herself often growing up. This meant that Lightning would actually have to pay attention to him; he wouldn't go down on the first strike.

This left Fang with significantly more targets to deal with.

It was impossible, Fang realized, with grim desperation, even as she cast Ruinga again, knocking several down. There was no why she could take out all of them!

Even if she had Bahamat...!

And then, just as she thought of her Eidolon's name, he came to her.

* * *

Lightning heard Bahamut's familiar roar, and couldn't help herself. She turned to look, narrowly avoiding her enemy's strike at her face.

But the Eidolon was not present. Instead, as she looked, she saw Fang leap into the air... and stay there, suspended. She could see the ghostly image of Bahamut's wings appear just behind Fang, flapping. The Pulsian Hunter's body was bobbing slightly in the air, in time with the flapping of Bahamut's ghostly, disembodied wings.

Fang's eyes were glowing.

As Lightning watched, her lover stretched both of her arms out to each side. As she did so, Bahamut's giant, monstrous arms appeared in the air. Fang brought her arms together in front of her in a thunderous clap, and Bahamut's arms did the same. The resulting booming Whirlwind was deafening, launching several of the half-Cie'th enemy into the air, staggering them.

Fang continued to attack. Still holding onto her lance, she swung it upwards in a 'launch'-like move. As she did so, Bahamut's arm appeared again and his Dragon Claws brutally cleaved several enemy into pieces. When she performed an Aerial Loop, it was as though the wind from a gigantic from rushed forth to scatter the enemy.

Then Fang snarled, and a small yellow-white ball of energy appeared in front of her face. She opened her mouth and an energy beam shot out from the ball, tearing up a line of enemy unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast.

Lighting had to dive out of the way to avoid being a casualty, though she had a grim smile on her face doing so.

Megaflare.

Her opponent, Leiz, wasn't so lucky, and was caught in the blast head on.

Coming out of her roll into a ready position, Lightning glanced over at Fang quickly and noted that the image of Bahamut's wings was flickered unsteadily, even as the light in Fang's eyes faded. Slowly, Fang floated back down to the ground. By the time her feet touched dirt, the traces of Bahamut's ghostly form had vanished. Fang stabbed her lance into the ground, as though completing mediguard, but Lightning could tell the other woman was just using her weapon as support to keep herself upright. Fang's Eidolon armor flickered as well, and faded away, leaving her back in her normal clothing. She was breathing deeply, obviously exhausted, though she still shot Lightning a triumphant, if weak grin.

The soldier couldn't help but return the expression...

... until a howl reminded her of the reality of the situation.

With a curse, Lightning quickly brought her gunblade up to block a strike from one of the enemy that hadn't been taken out by Fang's Eidolon attacks. A quick count found that while the number of enemy had been drastically reduced, there were still dozens of monstrosities left.

Lightning cursed as she quickly sent several curas over in Fang's direction. As the healing green light hit Fang in the back, it gave the Pulsian Hunter the strength to pull her weapon out of the ground to block another attack, just barely saving her own neck.

There were still far too many enemy left. They weren't out of the woods yet; not by a long shot.

_'RELEASE ME!'_

The command was deafening, and Lightning gave a sharp cry, clutching at her head. Whirling around, her eyes found the crystallized man. The crystal had been damaged during Fang's Megaflare, and Lightning could see the spider-like weaving of cracks all along the crystal.

_'I CAN HELP! RELEASE ME! NOW!'_

Lightning grit her teeth. Rushing forward, she blitzed her way through several targets, reaching the crystallized man. With a mighty swing, she smashed her gunblade against the crystal, bursting it into millions of tiny shards. The shards sprayed all over, peppering her. She raised her arm to shield her eyes.

When the spray was over, Lightning cautiously peered out, and saw that the man had been freed from the crystal. He remained in the same, standing position he had been in previously.

And then he opened his eyes. His gaze locked on Lightning's, a deep, dark, ominous amethyst.

And he smiled, a cruel, mean smile.

Menacing laughter, wholly inhuman, loud as thunder and foreboding as a storm, echoed through the air.

* * *

It was as though she were suddenly caught in a tornado that came from out of nowhere. There was no warning, saving for the ominous laughter. Then there was what felt like a thunder clap, and the winds suddenly and inexplicably picked up and became a ferocious storm, sending dirt, debris and enemy flying into the air, thick enough to choke out the sun.

Lightning cursed as she desperately tried to dig her heals into the ground to avoid being blown away, but it was futile. With a cry, the winds swept her up and she found herself airborne, tumbling this way and that as the tornado strength winds battered at her. Desperately, her hands flailed in the air to try to find some form of purchase, and, miraculously, she felt something grab one of her arms. The sudden jerk and change in direction disoriented the soldier further, before she realized that it was Fang who had plucked her out of the air, and pulled her to her chest, securing Lightning between her own body, and her lance, which she had planted into the ground, and was now desperately holding onto. They huddled together against the environment's sudden barrage.

"What the hell's going on?" Fang cried, her voice barely audible over the howling of the wind.

Lightning tried to answer Fang, but the air and her words were ripped from her lungs as soon as she opened her mouth - not that she actually knew the answer.

Gritting her teeth, Lightning could only turn to peer at where the man she had freed was previously standing... and her mind suddenly felt like it had turned to jelly.

She couldn't describe what she was looking at. It made her feel physically ill just trying to focus her vision upon it. It was wrong, and it was impossible and it was somehow made up of everything that existed in reality and the void of nothingness at the same time.

And yet, despite the madness that its very sight invoked, Lightning couldn't help but realize that she'd seen something like it once before, though, at the moment, she couldn't place when that was.

Desperately, she tried to remember when that was, for some reason, knowing in the depths of her heart, that it was imperative that she remembered this, but even as she tried to do so, a booming voice thundered in her head, loud enough to obliterate her mind.

_'INSIGNIFICANT INSECTS! YOU DARED TO SHACKLE ME, LINDZEI? FAL'CIE OF COCOON? FEEL THE WRATH OF YOUR BETTERS!'_

Lighting clutched at her head, screaming in agony at the deafening voice that had invaded her mind. Crumbling to the ground, she couldn't keep her eyes open. She felt like her head was going to explode. It felt as though something massive and powerful had tunnel its way into her brain from her eyes and her ears and it was trying to hollow her brain out, ravaging it for information.

Lightning screamed, in pain and agony and madness, letting go of Fang's lance to desperately muffle her ears, trying to get the loud, all encompassing pressure out of her head. Between the assault in her head and the ones on her physical body, she should have been blown away; it was only Fang's hold keeping her there.

For her part, the Pulsian hunter was screaming too, trying to bury her face into the crook of Lightning's neck, as she couldn't let go of her lance to protect her own ears, least they both be blown away.

Their heads were huddled so close together, Lightning could feel something pop and then something wet and sticky splut against the side of her face. Horror welded up in Lightning's stomach as she realized that that was likely Fang's eardrums...

_~ETRO, HELP US!~_ Lightning thought desperately.

And then, it dawned on her.

Etro.

The crawling madness in front of her; she had seen it before - when she had first been in the presence of the Goddess Etro, and her mind was unable to fathom such divinity. Etro had told her to form a picture in her mind, something more mundane that her mind could comprehend.

And Lightning realized what she had to do.

Forcing her eyes open, Lightning stared at the gaping maw of power before her and within her, trying to destroy her with its terrible vastness.

With her last coherent thoughts, Lightning fought back. She concentrated, forcing her will against the invader in her mind.

_~NO!~_ She cried mentally. _~Get OUT!~_

At first, nothing happened.

And then, there was screaming.

And it didn't belong to Lightning, or Fang.

* * *

Just as quickly and as brutally as it had began, the tornado strength winds suddenly and inexplicably stopped. The terrible, indescribably vastness in front of Lightning and Fang suddenly vanished, one second there, the next completely ceasing to exist, replaced with a simple human man, floating in the air, an expression of extreme shock and incomprehension fixed on his face, even as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

For a moment, nothing happened.

The Door of Souls was still.

And then, Lightning blinked. And gravity began to work again, and all the debris that had been kicked up into the air by the tornado strength winds began to rain down onto the ground again, all around them, showering them with crystal dust, dirt, rock, and grass. Lightning had to shut her eyes again to keep the dust out of her eyes.

When she was finally able to open her eyes, Lightning realized that the half-Cie'th had all gone, replaced by many, many glowing balls of blue light dotting the landscape around them. As Lightning contemplated what this meant, a weight she didn't realize she'd been carrying slumped off of her shoulders and landed on the ground roughly beside her.

Fang was unconscious, and looked terrible. Dark red was spilling out from her ears, staining her hair, and dribbling down onto her clothing. Despite her unconsciousness, her entire body was shaking and convulsing.

"Fang!" Lightning cried, terrible, terrible dread twisting her stomach into knots. Quickly, she knelt to the ground and laid her trembling hands on the side of Fang's head. "Raise," she whispered softly.

The magick went to work, and Fang groaned, her eyes eventually fluttering open. She didn't move, save to swivel her eyes to meet Lightning's.

Lightning swallowed back her anxiety, even as she gently turned her hand to lightly brush the back of her fingers against the side of Fang's face tenderly. "... are you... alright? Can you hear me?" she asked softly, not quite sure she could handle the answer.

But, thank Etro, Fang cracked a smile. "I feel like shit." She proclaimed hoarsely, even as she struggled to upright herself. She wiped at one of her ears, and wrinkled her nose in disgust as her hand came away from her head caked with her own dried blood.

Lightning let out a sight of relief. "You look like it too." She advised, offering her lover a hand.

"Gee, thanks." Fang murmured though she gratefully accepted Lightning's hand and managed to get to her feet. Then, the Pulsian hunter sniggered. "Can't say you're ready to eat at a fancy restaurant either, Love."

Frowning, Lightning followed Fang's line of vision back to her hips and couldn't help but give an 'ugh!' of sufferance when she realized that the other woman was referring to her feathered skirt.

It looked like, well, it had been through a tornado. 'Ruffled' didn't even begin to describe the state the feathers were in.

Lightning released her Eidolon armor, changing back into her normal clothes.

Now that their priorities (and not-quite priorities) had been attended to, they wearily looked around, surveying their environs for damage.

The place *definitely* looked like it had just been a warzone, with the ground still showing the marks of destruction. There was a fine layer of crystal dust over everything. There was no sign of their enemy, only the many, many glowing balls of light that Lightning recognized to be human souls.

A little ways away from them, was the humanoid figure who was apparently responsible for all of this.

Lightning and Fang shared a look, and wordlessly approached the figure.

The man did not seem injured - only unconscious.

Fang and Lightning shared another cautious glance, before Lightning nodded and Fang nudged at the man's foot with her spear. "... Hey. You alive?" She asked unsurely.

The man groaned, but didn't otherwise form words.

They didn't have time to investigate him further, however, as, at that moment, the sky suddenly filled with Lusita.

Lightning cursed her vanity and wished she hadn't released her Eidolon armor - ruffled feathers be damned. Gunblade poised, she got into a ready position even as she felt Fang do the same at her side.

They needn't have worried. The Lusita were not interested in them. Instead, the winged figures were busy attending to the souls - the little balls of glowing light - that were dotting the field. There were roughly two dozen of the winged creature, and as Lightning watched, they went from soul to soul, carefully scoping them up and holding them into their hands for a few moments, before lifting their arms up into the air, and sending the souls off on their way.

Seeing this, Lightning was almost ready to relax her hold on her omega, until one of the winged creatures regarded her, and approached.

_'The Abominable Dead... did you defeat them all?' _The Lusita asked, directly into Lightning's mind.

Despite the wariness she felt at having another's thoughts projected into her mind, given their earily mental assault, Lightning shared a glance with Fang, and then looked down at the unconscious man at their feet. "... we... may have." She hedged. "We're not entirely sure ourselves what happened."

The Lusita looked at Lightning, then flicked her eyes over to look at Fang. _'You should come with us,'_ the Lusita decided.

It reached out, and grabbed both of their arms.

"Wait-!" Lightning tried to protest, but before she could, the world disappeared on her.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES AND OMAKE

[pushing index fingers together worriedly]. Mmm... I'm not sure if CDE should be rated mature for the contents of this chapter or not. I think, complying with the strictest sense, the answer is probably yes, but when I think about the ratio of clean to naughty bits in this story, I really don't think it warrants a higher rating, as I don't think it'll be getting any more explicit than this in the future (no promises though!)...

I'd appreciate it if folks let me know what they think?

Warning! I like the idea behind Omake 1 so much, it might not stay omake! ^_~

As a heads up, I've been averaging roughly one chapter / week for the last little while, but things are starting to snowball together IRL, so the next chapter may be a little while in the coming...

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

OMAKE 1: Just How Connected Are You Two?

LIGHTNING: [Suddenly realizing something] Hey, Fang?

FANG: Hmm?

LIGHTNING: Do you remember how, in Chapter III.3, you told me that you and Vanille were linked?

FANG: Yes...

LIGHTNING: ... [Left eyebrow twitching] and in the same chapter, Vanille told the readers that since you two were in crystal sleep together, you two could share your consciousness if you wished for it, and that anything that you did, she could know...?

FANG: [Sweatdropping] Yes...

LIGHTING: ... [Suddenly horrified] ... then... last night... when we...

[Cut to VANILLE, wherever she is. She is holding her knees up to her chest in a fetal position and rocking herself back and forth with a wild and haunted look in her eyes.]

VANILLE: OhgodohgodohgodohgodohgodI'mnevergoingtobeabletolook Lightningintheeyesagain.

* * *

OMAKE 2: Fang on Top!

[FANG is BEAMING like the Cheshire cat while LIGHTNING's face is so red from blushing so hard, she looks like she could explode]

FANG: Woooh! WOOO! YEAH! [Can't stop celebrating gleefully]

SNOW: [Whispers To SERAH] What's wrong with Sis?

SERAH: ... [Whispers back] I don't think she agrees with the author's portrayal of her as a bottom.

LIGHTNING: [Grabs the AUTHOR'S lapels from off screen and hoists her up in the air] Fix this! NOW! [Points at the JUBILANT FANG] You've created a monster!

AUTHOR: [Sweatdropping massively] Y-yes Ma'am! [Ducks away fearfully]

FANG: [Stops in mid-celebration] Wai-what? You can't just- !

LIGHTING: [grins predatorily at FANG] Oh yes, I can! Just you wait, Oerba Yun Fang! Next time, *I'm* rocking *your* world!

FANG: ... [Can't decide if she's happy or horrified]


	12. Ch 12 II 4 You're Not the Brightest Bulb

[Final Fantasy XIII] Crystal Dreams of Eternity

Chapter 12: (II.4) You are Not the Brightest Bulb  
A Final Fantasy XIII Fanfic  
By jen-chan  
March 3 - 25, 2011

CHAPTER SYNOPSIS: During-game. How does Vanille feel about recent changes in Lightning and Fang's?

NOTE: I wanted to try something a little different with this chapter, so I've written it from 2nd person POV. Please let me know if it falls flat or not! Also, as a heads up, I've reorganized some of my early chapters for the sake of flow, but there otherwise, have been no changes to them!

Comments and Criticisms are greatly appreciated!

* * *

Fang's having sex with Lightning.

How do you know this?

Because Fang's been flirting with (at?) Lightning like she was some sort of bull behemoth during open mating season for the longest time, and then, suddenly, one day, *poof!*, she stops. No, she hasn't stopped teasing Lightning altogether, but that teasing has definitely lost some of it's more over-the-top edges.

You are able to peg this change in demeanor as occurring sometime after their run-in with the skunkenzilla, but when you ask Fang what actually happened at Sulyya Springs, she looks you in the eye with a completely blank expression and denies anything having happened at all.

Then she starts being extra nice to you (not obviously, but in the little things) helping you out with stuff when you don't really need it, giving you the best cut of the meat when she comes back from hunting...

It's like she's apologizing for doing something wrong, and when she's done something like this before in the past, eventually, you find out it's because she's been seeing someone.

It's almost like a conditioned reflex.

I mean, sure, you understand why Fang had to be really careful about keeping her conquests a secret in the past; even though those girls don't mean anything to her, Fang's mindful and considerate of them. Their reputations could really get ruined if word got out about them fooling around and all.

Love and sex are not the same thing - that's a belief that Fang's firmly held since you two were teenagers, but it isn't something *you* believe in.

To you, love and sex should go hand in hand. You're an adult now, and you feel that you shouldn't sleep with someone unless you're in love, and if you *are* in love, then sex would just be a natural expression of that love, right?

It bothers you a lot, that - Fang having intimate relations with Lightning but refusing to admit to it. It makes it seem... dirty somehow. Like it was something to be ashamed of or apologize for.

Sure, you can understand why the extent of Fang's relationships have only culminated in casual sex in the past (so many issues there), but things are different now!

Things are as they should be now!

Fang's with *Lightning* now. And Lightning... Lightning's different from all those other girls (you really, really, really want to believe that)!

So why, then, is Fang (and Lightning for that matter), insisting on denying their relationship?

Why won't they just admit that they're with each other?

Why does Lighting avoid looking at you in the eye when she talks to you (oh, that part *really* gets your goat)! You were just starting to get closer to her too! The conversations you guys were having were just starting to get better and more natural (you've really been enjoying those!), and now, suddenly, they're all stunted and awkward again, like when you first met (it's like you've totally taken three big steps backwards)!

Of course, somewhere in the back of your mind, and in the deepest parts of your heart, you understand why they're acting the way they are.

You just don't want to believe it, (though you know you should).

You don't want to believe that it's because of *you* (though you know it's true).

You don't want to believe that you're standing in the way of Fang's happiness (though you know you are).

You don't want to believe that you're any sort of third wheel (though you share a tent with them at night; how could you not be).

Your brain and your heart are warring with each other, and it's making everything oh so confusing.

So you decide to take one side and ignore the other as best as you can:

It's not you!

There's another explanation for all this!

There's got to be a reason why they're denying it!

It's not *you*!

It can't be!

Holding this thought as firmly as you can in your mind (even if you're not quite there yet), you run off to try to figure out what that explanation is.

* * *

You decide to talk to Sazh about it. Sazh is the oldest one in your group, so he should know best, right? Lifetime of experience and all that?

So you seek him out and you find him, polishing his guns. The baby chocobo is sitting beside him and sees you first. He chirps you a greeting, and you pick him up, playing with him absently while you ponder how best to start this conversation.

"... Sazh... can I talk to you for a minute?"

Sazh looks up at you, sees the look on your face, and gets an 'uh oh, here comes trouble' kind of expression on his own. Still, he nods, and makes room for you beside him.

"What's up, Vanille?"

"... Is it... customary on Cocoon not to admit it when you're in a relationship with someone else?"

Sazh raises an eyebrow. "Mind givin' me some background here? Before I mess up your perception on what Cocoon's suppose' to be like?"

You squirm a little in your seat. Should you tell him, or not? Eventually, you nod. "It's Fang and Lightning. They're sleeping together but they won't admit it."

Sazh's eyes bulge out of his head. "Whoa! The soldier? With Fang? Are you for real?"

You nod. "Yeah! But they keep tip-toeing around me, and won't admit that they're seeing each other!"

Sazh starts chuckling. "Well, damn! That explains some things! When did this start? No wait, let me guess, Sulyya Springs?"

You nod again.

Sazh nods in understanding, still chuckling. "Damn... and here I thought the soldier would loosen up if she was getting some. Guess not! But, anyway, your question again? Is it normal not to admit it when you're in a relationship with someone?" He strokes his beard in thought. "... well, what makes you think they're in a relationship?"

Your heart twitches with concern.

You do not like what Sazh is implying at all.

"They're having sex! Of course they're in a relationship!"

They have to be!

The old man raises an eyebrow at your reaction. "Uh... Vanille, having sex is not the same as being together." He says.

Your heart drops into your stomach a little when Sazh says this.

Nooo! It can't be! Even though that's what Fang said to you all those years ago, you can't believe it!

Your bottom lip quivers as you ball up your fists. "But... but I thought better of Lightning! She's not supposed to be like all those other girls!"

Unable to handle the answer that Sazh has suggested to you, you run off, even as he calls after you.

* * *

Silly Sazh! He doesn't know what he's talking about! He's...! He's *old*! Yeah, that's right! He's old and he's cynical! He doesn't understand what love is anymore!

As you try to convince yourself that Sazh is wrong, you look for Hope.

Hope! He would be someone better to ask! He's young! He should be more idealistic about what love is!

You eventually find him, gathering supplies. He looks up at you as you approach him.

"Hi, Vanille," he says. He can see that you are obviously flustered, and his eyebrows crinkle in concern. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Hope, I have a very important question to ask you!" You say.

"Okay." He gets up and looks at you seriously. "Shoot."

"Would you have sex with someone you're not serious about?"

"W-what?" Hope's eyes get really, really big, and he takes a step backwards. "I... I... where is this coming from?"

"Tell me, Hope!" You cry out.

He swallows, turning red in the face. "I... uh... well, no! No, no, I wouldn't do that! Unless you would, in which case, alright, I'm game!" He appears to be peering at you for your reaction, and when your brow shows the slightest hint of even beginning to furrow, he quickly switches back, "erm, I mean, I was joking! Ah... seriously... that's, uh, not something I would do..." His eyes keep shifting back and forth.

"Aha!" You say triumphantly, choosing to completely ignore the first part of his answer as you pump your fist in the air. "Take that, Sazh! I'm right! People don't do that, so they *must* be in a relationship!"

Hope looks really confused. "Who's in a relationship?"

You turn back to him. "Hmm? Oh. Fang and Lightning! Sazh just thinks they're having sex, but *I* think they're in a relationship!"

"What?" Hope chokes on his spit and starts to cough wildly. You wildly thump him on his back to help him recover. Eventually, he can breathe again, and looks at you with massive eyes. "Fang and Light?" He says weakly. "Really?"

You nod eagerly. "Oh yeah!"

"Wow... I... I didn't even know..."

"Well, that's because they're being stupidly secretive about it." Your brow furrows.

Right - that was your original concern, wasn't it? Before Sazh freaked you out about Lightning's intentions. Why were Lightning and Fang denying their relationship?

You look at Hope - he's been so helpful so far. "Hope, do you know why people would be secretive about being in a relationship? Is that a Cocoon thing?"

Hope shakes his head, still evidently a little shocked. "Sorry, Vanille. I can't say I have very much experience with stuff like that. Although..." He thinks about it. "There's this boy and girl in my class. Everyone know they're a couple and that they're... doing it, but they keep denying it because, well, for one thing, their parents would kill them..."

Your eyes widen as Hope's words hit home.

Parents? Family?

"They're hiding it because they don't have family approval?" You ask quietly.

Uh-oh. That's not what you want to hear at all! You *are* in the way!

Hope thinks about this and nods. "Yeah... I think that's it. Or something like that."

"B-but, I approve!" You insist at Hope, desperately. "I totally approve! I am totally their number one fan!"

Hope looks confused again. "Wait, are we talking about Fang and Light, or the couple in my class?"

But you're not listening to him anymore, you've run off again.

You have to give Fang and Lightning your approval!

* * *

You're frantically looking for Fang and Light, but can't seem to find them anywhere. You're so busy looking for them this way and that, that you don't even see Snow in front of you and run head-on into him.

"Woah, Vanille," he says with a laugh as he steadies the both of you. "Where's the fire?"

"Sorry, Snow!" You apologize. "I'm in a hurry! Have you seen Fang and Lightning?"

He shakes his head. "No, sorry, can't say I have..."

Damn! You're ready to run off again, until you realize something.

Snow. He's the only one out of all of you who's in a healthy, regular, normal relationship (even though his bride-to-be is in a crystal at the moment). If anyone can give you advice, surely, it would be him!

Stopping in your tracks, you turn and run back to him. "Snow!" You say, excitedly. "How did Lightning give you her approval to court Serah?"

Snow blinks at you. "Uh... she didn't?"

You boggle. Lightning was really *cross* with Snow when you all first met, but she's (relatively) warmed up to him since you all started travelling together! She *must* have given him her consent by now!

"What? What do you mean, she didn't? Didn't you ask her for her permission to marry Serah?"

Snow shook his head. "No. Why would I need Lightning's permission? I mean, sure, it would be nice to get her blessing, but I don't *need* it. The only woman's permission I need is Serah's..."

"Oh." You are surprised with this turn of events.

Snow is still looking at you with confusion on his face, so you explain to him. "Well, in Oerba, the man must prove to the girl's family that he can care for and provide for her at least as well as they can. He's actually got to challenge her father in combat. If he wins, then the family consents to the marriage."

"Really?" Snow raises his eyebrow. "Wow. That's actually... kinda cool. To be able to acknowledge each other as men on the battlefield..." He gives a short laugh. "Man, I wish we did that on Cocoon. That way I could have just beat the approval out of Lightning and save Serah a bunch of heartache..."

You wonder if Snow really would be able to get Lightning's approval that way, or if that would just give her a really good excuse to render him incapable of fathering children, but even as you think this, a light bulb turns on over your head as the hamster inside your brain excitedly starts to run as quickly as its little legs can carry it.

You give Snow a big grin. "Oh, wow...! I get it! I know what to do now! Thanks Snow! I think I've just found a way to tell Lighting I'm okay that she's sleeping with Fang!" You give him a quick hug before you run off.

"Oh, you're welc-WHAT? Vanille, say that again?"

* * *

It's okay! You get it now! After talking to Sazh, Hope, and Snow, you're able to admit it to yourself:

It *is* you. You *are* the one standing in the way of Fang and Lightning's happiness.

You *are* the reason why they won't admit that they're seeing each other, that they're loving each other.

But it's okay! You can admit that to yourself now, because you know how you can fix it!

* * *

Eventually, you manage to find Lightning, even though you haven't yet been able to find Fang. The soldier is quietly doing some stretches, a little ways away from camp.

As you approach her, you clutch your binding rod to your chest, and put an expression of utmost determination on your face.

You have to do this! Now! Before you chicken out!

Fang's forbidden you from talking to Lightning directly about it, but, somehow, you've got to show the both of them that you're totally okay and approve of their relationship!

... still... just in case, you quietly utter several synergist spells under your breath to buff yourself up a little; nothing wrong with being prepared...

Lightning hears you and turns around to look at you. There is a guarded expression in her eyes that makes you want to scream, but you hold that in for now. She quirks an eyebrow at you. "Yes?"

Thus acknowledged, and with no further warning, you cry out with as much authority as you can muster.

"Lightning Farron! I challenge you to a duel for the honor of Oerba Yun Fang!"

Lightning stares at you like you've got two heads. "Ex... cuse me...?" She finally manages to ask.

"Stop looking at me like that!" You pout, "I mean it! Lightning, get ready!" And with that you wildly swing your binding rod at her.

Lightning stops your swing with her bare palm without batting an eye.

You try in vain to wrestle your weapon back from Lightning's grip (damn she's strong) but she holds onto it easily, preventing you from swinging again.

"Hey!" You cry, "that's not fair! Let go!"

"What's going on, Vanille." Lightning deadpans.

"I told you! It's a duel! Now take me seriously!"

Lightning is not impressed.

"If I took you seriously, you'd be bleeding all over the ground right now."

You grin as meanly as you can, copying the way Fang does it when she's trash talking, but somehow, you get the distinct impression that you are only managing to come off as harmlessly cute rather than intimidating; Lightning doesn't even blink.

Well! You'll show her!

"Are you sure about that?" And with that, you wave your arm. "Death! DeathDeathDeathDeathDeath!"

Lightning's eyes get ridiculously big, and she lets go of your binding rod to leap out of the way on the off chance that your ultimate saboteur spell works.

"That the hell!" She cries, "Vanille, what are you doing?"

Hmm... maybe you shouldn't be trying to cast death. There *is* that one in fifty chance that it actually might work after all...

Now what would Fang say to you if you accidently killed Lightning? Wow - that wouldn't be pretty at all!

It's prooobably safer if you switch it up with some other spells...

"Slow! Daze! Deshell!" You know that you must keep peeling the spells off to keep Lightning at a distance, 'cause if she has a chance to close in on you, you are *done for*.

Apparently, Lady Luck's on your side and your slow and daze manage to hit Lightning square in the face before she has a chance to draw her gunblade.

Her eyes glaze over and she blinks at you stupidly, utterly refusing to believe she is having this much trouble against you. She's trying to will her mouth to work, but your magic is spot on and she can only gape at you dumbfoundedly.

Taking this chance, you quickly swing your binding rod again, wrapping your lines around Lightning's body to trap her. Then, you switch to ravager and cast Fire, Aero and Water at the soldier.

Lightning doesn't stand a chance. She gives a grunt of pain and takes all three elemental spells head on. She is launched into the air by the wind, and then the fire and water hit her.

You keep at it, sending spell after spell at the soldier - Lighting makes noises of obvious discomfort as she is kept up in the air by the force of your magic. Unfortunately though, you can't keep it up forever, and you eventually tire out and have to take a rest: this allows Lightning to fall back down to the earth, and she lands with a *thud* and an *ugh!*

You eye Lightning warily - she's still on the ground, wrapped up in your lines, but the daze spell is starting to wear off, and you can see in Lightning's eyes that she is ready to skin you alive.

Waah! Craaaap! You are *sooo!* going to die! What the hell made you think this was going to be a good idea?

You know you must knock Lightning out now, or you are in for a world of hurt. You send spell after spell at the pink haired woman - fires and water and blizzards, and the fires end up colliding with the waters and the blizzards, creating a terrific cloud of steam that obscures Lightning from view.

Even then, you don't stop, switching back to saboteur to send a few more debuffing spells into the steam cloud, hoping that you connect with Lightning but unable to tell if you do.(You even spam a few more 'deaths' in her direction in your blind panic).

Eventually, you're gasping for air and have to stop. As you rest, you realize with a sickening twist in your stomach that the lines in your binding rod have gone slack.

Lightning has freed herself.

Wearily, you stare at the cloud of steam, and as it fades, you can see your very painful and graphic eminent demise standing before you with an unholy black aura and glowing red eyes (okay, so maybe you exaggerate. Lightning's just a little worse for wear. She's holding her gunblade in a defensive position, so you realize she's evaded many of your spells. Her eyes do promise pain though).

You can only see Lightning standing there for a brief moment, and then she's *gone* as she sprints up in front of you and the next thing you know, Lightning's gunblade is right up against your neck and all you can see is her eyes as she gets right up into your face.

You give a small 'eep!' of surprise.

Lightning's left eye is twitching as she glares at you. "Yield?" She finally says.

You would have nodded, except you'd probably lose your chin if you did. "Y-yes ma'am," you squeak out. "You win."

Lightning continues to glare at you for a few more moments before she finally puts her gunblade away. "Now, what was this all about?" She looks... tired.

You clear her throat and try to get it all out as quickly as possible.

"Lightning Farron, I acknowledge that you have defeated me in a duel, and have proven yourself capable of providing for my family member! I therefore consent to your courtship of Fang, and you taking her into the Farron clan!"

Lightning just... stares at you.

You sweatdrop.

Maybe you should clarify - Snow said this wasn't a custom of Cocoon!

"Well, what I mean to say is, I am totally okay that you and Fang are together! Please keep having sex with her!"

Now Lightning's eyes widen again - she seems to be doing that a lot today. "W-what? I'm not...! I mean, we haven't...!" Her whole body flushes red. "What are you talking about?" She finally settles on. "I haven't been having sex with Fang!"

You blink. "What?"

"I'm not having sex with Fang!" Lightning repeats herself - loudly, and the completely frazzled expression on her face tells you that she is telling the truth. "What makes you think that I am?"

"Oh!" You put a hand up to your mouth in surprise. "... but! You and Fang have been acting so... so totally *weird* around me! It's the way she *always* acts when she's sleeping around!"

Oh dear. It's only now you realize that a few of the assumptions in your theory are proooobably on the far fetched side. Totally belated, you remember the brief conversation you had with Fang in the Ark ('are you planning on courting her? Or just bedding her'?)...

Lightning's eyes narrow fractionally as she's picked up on something you've implied in your words. "... Vanille, just how many women has Fang been with?"

Uh oh.

You start sweating bullets. "Um! Not very many at all! Not at all!"

You know you're just making it worse; Lightning doesn't look like she believes you at all!

Crap! Fang is going to *kill!* you!

So you decide to go with the truth - that will probably cause you the least amount of trouble. The words spill from your lips.

"Okay, maybe that's not exactly true! But what's true is this, Light! Fang *likes* you! A lot! She's never felt for anyone the way she feels for you. And I... I like you a lot too! I really want the two of you to be happy together! It's killing me that you two think you have to hide anything from me at all! It's been so awkward the last few days - I hate it!"

Wow. That came out totally ridiculously. You are a twat.

But somehow, something you said appears to have made it through to Lightning as intended because she stares at you for a moment longer, before closing her eyes, and gritting her teeth. You can almost hear her counting to ten under her breath as she tries to calm down.

And then, Lightning speaks, and her voice is unsure, but strong.

"That's... kind of you. Thank you."

Her face is doing some pretty odd twitches, and it takes you a while to realize it's because she's debating whether or not to say anything more, or to just leave well enough alone.

Eventually, she decides to contribute to the clearing of the air.

"Thank you, Vanille. That... actually means a lot. I... am attracted to Fang, but I didn't know if it was appropriate to continue to act on that attraction."

You frown. "Why ever not?"

Lightning looks uncomfortable, but continues. "I guess I just wasn't sure how you and Fang... fit. I once asked her a question. A stupid question. And she answered ambiguously, so I wasn't sure what to do."

Really? You blink. "What was the question?"

"... I asked her, if women were allowed to marry each other in Oerba, would she and you be together."

Your eyes widened. Fang never told you that! "What did she say?"

"She just said that it was complicated."

Oh. Good GRIEF! You can't help but roll your eyes. "Well *duh* it's complicated!" You cry out. "I mean, it's not a simple, 'if A, then B' kinda question! It's totally a 'If A, then B, which could lead to C, but you should then take into account D, and probably E, so potentially F, but maybe G' kinda question! Or something like that!"

Lightning looks a little surprised that you'd attempt to spout math logic, but says nothing.

So, you continue on, steadfast.

After all, you and Fang have already agonized over all of this in your teenaged years, and you aren't about to allow yourself to feel any more grief over a silly what-if question!

"Lightning, I love Fang to pieces! I want nothing but for her to be happy, and you make her happy! So if you *ever* make her sad, I sweat to Etro, I will poison you in your sleep! Ok?"

The pink haired soldier is regarding you with a new found respect in her eyes, and slowly she nods.

Huh. Somehow it doesn't surprise you that the threat of bodily violence is what it takes for Lightning to accept your acceptance of them.

"Good!" You take a deep breath, rather proud of yourself, and unable to believe that you are able to be so forthright. Fang would be proud of you! A big smile splits your face, and you give Lightning a big hug. She stiffens in your grip for a bit, before relaxing, and you can feel her put a hand on top of your head.

Eventually, you release her. "Alright! Now that that's out of the way, give me some details! What do you mean, 'continue to act on that attraction'?" You repeat her words, grinning cheekily. "Does this mean you've already acted?"

Lightning smirked. "I know better than to raise to that bait." She says.

You pout. "You're no fun! You know, you two should just do it, because I've already told everyone you are anyway."

Lightning's eyes get big once again.

"WHAT?"

Uh oh.

You gulp and flee for your life.

* * *

Later that night, while you are discretely trying to cure yourself of various Lightning-inflicted damage, you can hear Fang clearing her throat behind you, and a shiver of absolute terror traverses up your spine.

You quickly put on the puppy dog look before you turn around, making your eyes as big and round and moist as possible.

Fang's not buying it.

"So I hear you married me off today." She deadpans.

You wince. "Maybe a little?"

Fang rubs her face tiredly. "What were you thinking?"

"A lot of things. All at the same time. So I think I kinda got confused."

"I'll say." Fang sighs, and sits down in front of you, tapping her foot on the ground patiently.

You recognize that this is your chance to clear the air. "Fang, why have you been acting all weird around me? I totally misinterpreted it all and ended up thinking... well, a lot of things."

Fang is unfazed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Now you give her a deadpan expression.

Fang looks mildly sheepish. "... alright, maybe I was a little bit..." And now, she sighs again, an awkward expression on her face.

"Vanille, this thing with Light is... different. I don't know what it is yet, but, whatever it is, I *didn't* want you to think that you're not still the most important thing in the world to me because of it."

Fang grows quiet then, and gives you a strange look you've never seen before.

Wow. You never realized that Fang could do the puppy dog look too.

You grin as you throw your arms around her. "Fang, I love you, and I know you love me. That's never going to change, no matter who you or I fall in love with, get married to, bear children of, and live happily ever after with. If you've found someone who might be able to make you happy, even if you're not totally sure about it yet, don't you *dare* try to use me as an excuse to avoid finding out, or I will be *very* angry with you, you hear?"

Fang looks at you with an unsure expression on her face for a second, and then she laughs, and a grand smile splits her face. She ruffles your hair.

"Thanks, Vanille. I always knew that, but... it's good to hear reminders of it sometimes."

You give Fang a big smile back, happy that everything is all right again.

... now, all you have to do is figure out how to keep her from finding out you spilled the beans about her exes...

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES & OMAKE

Many thank yous to guubear for helping me bang this chapter out! I wanted to try something different with the 2nd person POV, but I don't think I had the skill to pull it off. :( This chapter isn't the best, but it's still miles better than some of the original drafts, and that is all due to you, guubear!

As a heads up, I'm in the process of re-arranging of the previously released chapters for the sake of flow. I feel like 'Dancing' and 'the Hot Springs Episode' should come before 'Differing Societal Values'. As well, I feel like some of the post-game chapters should come earlier, so there's some movement there too...

Apologies for the confusion! Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

jen-chan

* * *

OMAKE 1: 1 in 50

[LIGHTNING and VANILLE are facing off against each other.]

LIGHTNING: What's going on, Vanille?

VANILLE: I told you! It's a duel! Now take me seriously!

LIGHTNING: If I took you seriously, you'd be bleeding all over the ground right now!

VANILLE: Oh yeah? Take this! Death!

[Spell hits LIGHTNING in the face]

LIGHTNING: [Eyes roll into the back of her head and keels over] [dies]

VANILLE: ... ... ... dammit! I was saving that one up for platinum ingots!

* * *

OMAKE 2: Rumor Mongering

[EVERYONE is seated around the campfire eating dinner. SNOW, SAZH and HOPE keep stealing glimpses at LIGHTNING and/or FANG discretely between mouthfuls.]

FANG: [Leans over towards LIGHTNING] Is it just me, or are the menfolk acting really strangely tonight?

LIGHTNING: [Eyebrow twitching] You think so? I hadn't noticed. [Gives VANILLE a hard look].

VANILLE: [Refuses to look anywhere in LIGHTNING's general direction] Lalala...


End file.
